nothing else needs to be said about him. He isn’t a serious contender by anyone’s standards.

It was his own reelection.

I can’t speak about Rick Santorum from experience, but I do know that Gary Johnson is a goofball who should not be taken seriously.

I lived in NM when Johnson was governor. At best he was a good-times governor, it’s easy to run a state in the ’90′s when the tax money was rolling in (and Intel was expanding local production, helping to boom the local economy). He did nothing to allay the corruption that festered up more noticeably during Richardson’s tenure. He was a moderate Republican in a purple state. Tea partier he is not.

He has some really toxic ideas about legalizing drugs. Not just pot, mind you, but everything up to heroin. He sees it as a victimless crime. Coming from a state where substance abuse and drunk driving is a serious day-to-day social problem, I think he’s delusional that he’d be taken seriously. .

his embrace of Arlen Specter at a critical time in that campaign disabused my of any notion that he was anything other than the consumate insider with no real political compass, his protestations not withstanding.

The only thing worse than those in our party who stand against the principles of our party are those who feign to be our friends while in reality being just another establishment, elitist insider.

As a result, Rick is even underneath Huckleberry for me, and considering that Mikey’s not even *on* my list…..

Back in 2005, I supported the notion of a Santorum for President. Then Santorum got trounced by Casey in 2006.

If Santorum wanted to be a political player again, then he should have ran for Senate this year.

Once he gets one percent of the vote in Iowa and three percent in New Hampshire, he’ll be gone and, most definitely, forgotten.

When you lose a statewide election by nearly 20 points, you’re dead weight.

Pennsylvania is a swing state, and he had PLENTY of money for that election. He also was up against a complete moron with Casey. Absolutely no excuses (and he endorsed Arlen Specter over Toomey)

A Republican has to show me they can WIN before we even start this conversation.

We need people with executive experience – governors, generals, CEOs – who know how to administer a large operation.

Senators are mainly buffoons.

“I qualify,” Santorum said. “I was out, content to be out, but now I feel compelled to come back.”

His “war chest” would look like Palin’s shoe allowance.

Plus, he is not as smart, has less experience and isn’t as good looking.

Next!

…maybe, maybe not.

His boat/dinghy may very well have sailed, but that he is or is not at the foot of the cross of small government is a big deal to him, if that is indeed the case. He must avow it. And it is to me too, for I too am a former sinner myself. Being redeemed is a big deal to me.

Be charitable, Children. Look before you leap.

This was added to the story and changes it.

Clarification: This article originally quoted Santorum as saying former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson is another presidential aspirant who could be considered a tea party candidate. Santorum now says he misspoke and meant to say Ron Johnson, the senator-elect from Wisconsin.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44952.html#ixzz151N1S5NG

If the utter Epic Fail of the Obama Administration teaches us anything, it is that it is disastrous to put someone without strong executive experience in the world’s top job, running the largest operation in human history (the US government).

Governors, generals, CEOs, even big-city mayors have a leg up on the job, although no one is truly qualified for it until they prove it.

There is no need to demonize the guy – except in the de rigueur demonizing of anyone without 100% approval from the purists which now seems required – to say he isn’t qualified.

Of course, the idea of Santorum as a “Tea Party” guy is about as ridiculous as SC Lt. Governor Andre Bauer – the guy behind the scurrilous attacks on Nikki Haley – saying “I was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party.”

I see the guy and his family every Sunday in church. Heck, his kids are alter servers. This is not in Pennsylvania.

in Red State? It seems we pontificate like arm chair quarterbacks who analyze yesterday’s big game.

I continue to stand for former Senator Rick Santorum and red conservative. There are many other pro-life politicians, yes. But Rick Santorum had the guts to move heaven and earth for the pre-born. There are stories– not from him– but from couples who did not abort their children because of his words. That saving work affirms this man’s honor more than any other misstep he may have made.

As a lifelong Pennsylvanian originally from the “greater Scranton area” (home of the Caseys) who gleefully watched Santorum dispatch Harris Wofford to political ignominy in 1994 while sitting in a Scranton area bar, I was infuriated by his propping up snarlin’ Arlen in 2004, I find this thread bothomewhat fascinating and disturbing.

First, let me concede Santorum screwed up by supporting Specter (has anybody every thought that now, as a Democrat with no middle initial, Arlen could follow the example of Harry Truman an adopt “s” as his middle initial?). Santorum could have taken a much less visible position or deferred to the will of the electorate. Instead, he squandered his political capital on a man who proved that straddling the fence is simply the fast way to political emasculation. So I grant you, Rick screwed up, and screwed up royally.

That having been said, a lot of people on our side screwed up. President Bush screwed up royally in many ways-and supported Specter as well. Despite this, he is being welcomed on every media outlet. Even Pat Toomey supported the post 9/11 airline bailout (that’s not conservative, free market or Tea Party, sorry) when a Congressman, something I vehemently disagreed with, but I voted for him earlier this month and contributed to his campaign, because I don’t expect perfection.

Quite frankly, its not nearly as much as a disqualifier as say, Romneycare is, at least to me.

I’m not interested in being manipulated by that part of the right that would just like the pro-life, pro-marriage Republicans to GO AWAY. I find Jonathan’ Rauch’s comment about family vs. small government to typify the narrative that would disenfranchise social conservatives as inauthentic or impure. Whether or not he’s part of either group, he’s clearly sipping from the country-club or libertarian KOOL-AID.

As for Santorum as a presidential candidate, when I read his missives from the EPPC on Jihadistan, I see somewhat who properly understands that preemptive capitulation isn’t diplomacy, its cowardice. Whatever his status as a “beltway” guy, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be bowing before other heads-of-state if he were the next Senator elected President.

I’m not interested in having Santorum swing from the gallows for the political crime of supporting Specter, but in any future quest for public office, especially the Presidency, I’d like to hear what he’s learned from having gone “all in” for an individual that had no core, no loyalty and whose indispensability was proven to be false twice. How would this affect and inform his selection of cabinet officials for example?

As frustrated as I was with Rick in 2004, lets be blunt: His loss was OUR LOSS. Had he prevailed in 2006, there would likely have been no Obamacare. Let’s examine Rick’s successor: “Where’s Bobby” Casey, Jr., recruited and wholly owned by Chuck Shumer.

He sought national significance by being an early supporter of Barack Obama and has been a reliable vote with the Northeast radicals. Now the most visible thing he’s doing is encouraging women to get mammograms. Facing election again in 2012, he’ll have to try to regain the moderate Democrat label he tossed into the wind when it was blowing strongly leftward.

Nobody will every accuse him of being a “luminous” intellect and his sole claims his present office are rather uninspiring.

First, he’s the son of the late PA governor best known for giving Pennsylvanians a “pizza tax” and a “union shop” in state government employment. Politics is the family business. (His brother sought the PA-10 Congressional seat before losing a couple of times and giving up). The Caseys fancy themselves as the Kennedys of Scranton, Pennsylvania, although as soon as they can, they head for Harrisburg or Washington-because they are people whose pedigree compels them to careers in “public service”.

Second, “Bobby” served as Pennsylvania Auditor General with as little distinction as he’s serving with in the U.S. Senate. AG was clearly a step on the gubernatorial ladder until that ambition was derailed by Ed Rendell. Third, polls indicated that some Democrats thought he WAS his father, despite the elder Casey’s death several years earlier.

Yeah, Rick screwed up by supporting AS, but the people that stayed home in 2006 because of that have even worse instincts because they gave us “Bobby”. Similarly, should it come to pass that 2012 gives us Santorum vs. Obama-what will be your choice?

Burn this in you brain: a Republican, any Republican, unless he or she clubs a baby seal on live television, is better than Obama. He’s always been dangerous, only before it was because he was taken seriously. Now he’s headed for the same part of presidential history as Carter-and we can’t afford that today.