.

If Santorum’s only path to victory in a REPUBLICAN primary is to solicit Democrats to vote for him and by attacking Romney for not supporting the auto bailout, he should not be the nominee. I don’t like Romney either, but Santorum is just as much of a fake conservative as Romney is. Enough with these two fake conservatives, let’s give Newt one more comeback.

It says volumes about what Romney’s own internal polling must show…

So..Romney doesn’t want democrats to vote for a fellow Republican eh? He should have known the rules. The primaries and caucuses were set up to benefit a Romney candidacy and now he is whining? Pathetic

Couldn’t agree more, Erick. And for those with short memories or too young to remember 2008, we were part of Operation Chaos:

“In late February 2008, Limbaugh announced “Operation Chaos,” a political call to action with the initial plan to have voters of the Republican Party temporarily cross over to vote in the Democratic primary and vote for Hillary Clinton, who at the time was in the midst of losing eleven straight primary contests to Barack Obama. Limbaugh has also cited the open primary process in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, which allowed independent voters to cross over into the Republican primaries to choose John McCain over more conservative candidates (such as Fred Thompson), as an inspiration.”

Mittens is just hopeless and must be stopped.

are transparent in their zeal to defend Mitt no matter what philosophical or logical inconsistencies they have to embrace. The more you get exposed to it, the more disgusted you get with the hardcore Romney supporters and Romney himself.

he has peeved me so much and shown himself to be so low. I am really wondering if I will be able to make myself vote for him. Everyday it seems to get harder.

It absolutely makes sense to appeal to independents and get them to vote for you if there’s a reasonable chance they’ll also support you in the general election. But to actively go after not independent but Dem voters? That’s just sad. Michael Moore (one of the people helping push this) is not going to vote for Santorum in a general election. That’s the difference between what’s happening in MI and what happened in NH.

…they should remember that Santorum has been quoted a number of times defending his electability by claiming he can attract a Reaganesque coalition that includes the ‘Reagan Democrats’. It is, after all, how Santorum was able to win elections in blue-leaning PA.

So here you have the Romney (& his supporters) on one hand claiming he is more electable, yet screaming bloody murder when those very folks he claims to be able to attract are encouraged to vote for a Republican candidate. If the former is true, Romney should be excited about bringing in the blue-collar Reagan Democrats.

Perhaps Romney and his supporters are upset not so much because he may lose the MI primary, but because this is exposing the lie of his supposed electability.

If this works for Santorum, then he scores not only MI, but perhaps he also makes an effective argument to being able to peal Dems away from Obama.

Romney’s also saying we shouldn’t attack OBAMA just to get an uptick in the polls.

What a hypocrite.

I was at Santorum’s speech yesterday. He’s after the Reagan Democrats. Generally blue collar social conservatives who are needed to win Michigan in a general election. What’s he’s attacking is Romney’s support for wall street bailouts while opposing the auto bailout. Santorum is against both bailouts.

The system was set up by state committee. A lot of the Romney backers wanted this system thinking that independents would support Romney who they wanted in the general. Most conservative republicans (including myself) wanted a caucus.

Romney is toast if he loses Michigan, and now if he loses the knockout punch will have been delivered by… DEMOCRATS. They will have completely altered the trajectory of this race.

If Romney loses Michigan, now matter the margin, there needs to be a mass exodus of high-profile supporters from his campaign to pressure him into leaving the race so that a new candidate can be recruited who can use Romney’s ballot access as a proxy, while personally qualifying for access where possible. Otherwise, we’ve blown the entire election.

Surely, someone out there is electable, wants to be president, and is capable of being nominated???

who is likely getting a majority of the cross-over Democrat voters? Nope. Did Romney complain when an earlier SC poll came out that showed him getting more support in that state from Democrats than Republicans. Nope. Romney is really turning into one big crybaby when things don’t always go his way. What would he do when Kim Jong Un points a nuke at our bases in South Korea, just start crying and stamping his feet.

…I thought this was a Republican primary.

Given all the past prattle on this issue, talk of changing the primary process to better accommodate Republicans real choice, etc., etc., one would have thought this would be heresy.

Yet an alleged Republican candidate makes an appeal to union members. Michael Moore fans and other people who will vote for Obama in November and we should be distracted by select Romney “failings”?

The only thing I fail to see is the rational logic.

If Romney can’t take the heat, he needs to get out of the race.

Mitt’s entire “electability” meme is based on his ability to attract so-called Independents and moderate Democrats better than these “kooky conservatives”. If the Dems, for whatever reason, are out voting against him in the primary, it just exposes that rationale as the joke some of us have known it was from the beginning.

better than Obama of course, but a horse’s ass nevertheless.

Note that in his diary Erick doesn’t really defend Santorum’s tactics. He just complains about Romney. In other words, he hates Romney so much that he really doesn’t care how he is defeated.

This issue is being viewed in the wrong context. It doesn’t matter if what Rick is doing is principled or not. The question is what influence does this have on the party? What does it say about Republicans when Dems can hijack the primary in this way? The Republican party is being dismantled before our eyes, and all these people care about is using it for another opportunity to bring Romney down.

did the same thing in his primary campaign. Wonder if Romney thought that was a dirty trick as well.

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/07/rick_snyder_campaign_appeals_t.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/post/michigan-primary-democratic-mischief/2012/02/15/gIQA2zQuHR_blog.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/08/04/bernero_snyder_to_face_off_in_michigan_106607.html

It’s still stupid for Santorum to do that because it will de-legitimize his win if he does win. He was already going to get a huge margin from the Democrats. Now it means that if he wins Michigan, the headline will undoubtedly include this charge from the Romney camp. It was dumb. He negates any bounce he might have received from winning. He must think that it is more important for Romney to lose Michigan than for him to win.

As a candidate, you’re always outraged by what your opponents are doing, even if it isn’t anything particularly despicable. Asking a candidate to stop being phony is like asking a cow to stop being tasty, it’s just in their nature.

The primary bill was written by the state legislature, led by Romney endorsers House Speaker Jase Bolger and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, and signed into law by Romney endorser Governor Rick Snyder. The Romney team wrote the rules that allow Dems to vote in the GOP primary because that is when Romney was trying to be the moderate and the one that could attract Dem votes.

Cry me a river. Michigan is home to the Reagan Democrats who crossed over to support Reagan in the Primary and again in the General. Santorum is attracting blue collar Reagan Democrats who are social conservatives, pro-second amendment, pro-jobs and pro-defense. What they don’t like is Romney and if we have a chance in Michigan at all this fall we need these voters.

From another thread mikelindell2 said: “Santorum is after all pleading with Democrats to vote for him in MI by making robocalls to bash Romney for not supporting the auto bailouts.”

Highly unlikely, since Rick Santorum didn’t support the auto bailouts either.

All that aside, the majority of Republicans don’t support Mitt Romney according to the polls. If Newt Gingrich dropped out of the race (which would be the noble thing to do since Newt has plummeted in the polls) that would be a big boost for Rick Santorum (who would gain the majority of Gingrich’s support no doubt) plus Santorum is already polling the highest against Mittens in the national polls. The majority of conservative votes are split between Santorum and Gingrich and if Newt dropped out of the race, Santorum would likely surge in the polls, and the liberal turned moderate, turned so-called conservative Mitt Romney, would probably lag far behind and lose the nomination just like he did in 2007 when he failed to convince the American people his shark jumping from liberal to so-called conservative was for real. Which the majority of Republicans and Independents are still having a hard time believing again in 2012 needless to say. It’s no wonder Mittens has had a hard time drawing in support from conservatives (which make up a majority in the Republican Party by the way). When recent comments of his saying: “I won’t set my hair on fire to win conservative votes” – shows a man visibly upset with the conservative Republican Party base. The same Republican Party base, which is made up of a majority of conservative Americans who love freedom, liberty, low taxes and limited government. Whereas, Mitt Romney seems determined to distance himself from the very people who could solidify a win for him for the Republican nomination. Yet Romney seems unwilling to do what is necessary to garner those conservative voters. No, I don’t mean by setting his hair on fire either.

I mean by “warming up” to conservatives by gladly attending Tea Party events (which he has distanced himself from, because he’s not really a conservative like he says he is maybe??). Just sayin’. He also needs to “convince” conservatives that his speeches aren’t just all talk. For what it’s worth, Mitt Romney has had a hard time convincing himself of his own conservative talking points. If he can’t really convince himself he’s a conservative, how is he going to convince real conservative Americans – who are the majority voting block in the United States of America – to vote for him? In other words, those who walk the conservative walk, not just talk a conservative talk like Mitt Romney is perceived as doing in my opinion.

Romney lost the nomination in 2007 because… wait for it… he couldn’t convince Republicans he was who he said he was. He said he was a conservative but a person only needed to look at his previous record in politics, and his own life, to know that that simply wasn’t true. A person can say anything he wants to, but that doesn’t necessarily make it true, right? What the American people have to go by is a person’s own record on social and other issues over the span of a person’s lifetime. The sixty four thousand dollar question on everyone’s mind is: what suddenly made Mitt Romney “flip-flop” and become a so-called conservative? Was it because of a personal conviction that his previous positions on the issues were flat out wrong and his remorse led him to repentance because he finally “saw the light”? Or was it because he had his “eye on the presidency” and knew in today’s world the only way he could get the Republican nomination – is if he ‘morphed’ into a conservative – to be able to tap into that vast reserve of conservative voters (which make up the majority of the Republican Party by the way) in order to obtain the prize of winning the coveted Republican nomination that he’s really really wanted since at least… 2007? Since he seems unwilling to “convince” the American people (or himself) that his “conversion” to conservatism was for real, why then would the vast majority of conservatives want to vote for Mitt Romney? Since Mittens hasn’t yet convinced the majority of conservatives to support him, it’s no doubt the main reason why he “can’t get over the hump” or “break out” and pull away from the rest of the field.

Rick Santorum is also having a more difficult time convincing Republicans he’s a true social conservative (his support of the abortion mill Planned Parenthood is one reason no doubt) but he is also having trouble convincing the American people he’s a true “fiscal” conservative after the spotlight has been placed upon him by the media. Which have put “chinks in his armor” of his claim he’s a fiscal conservative. The “Bridge to Nowhere” (supporting it even when funding for hurricane Katrina was threatened) is just one example of “fiscal” recklessness by Rick Santorum. He still hasn’t admitted his mistake over the “Bridge to Nowhere” fiasco. If he did admit the mistake I missed it then.

Hey, I call them like I see ‘em! We the American people need to hold our politicians, and in this case our four Republican presidential candidates, accountable. If they can’t pass muster, then BROKERED CONVENTION here we come!

A Dark Horse candidate that is unstained, above reproach, and a true conservative, might be just what the doctor ordered. But who that theoretical Dark Horse candidate will turn out to be (if there really is a brokered convention) is anyone’s guess. Jeb Bush recently shot himself in the foot when he said: “I used to be a conservative.” Mitch Daniels seems too scared to take the plunge. Marco Rubio?? Rand Paul??? Jim DeMint???? Time will tell I reckon.

If Mitt Romney could just convince the very same people he apparently despises – to vote for him – this could be over in no time. If Rick Santorum could convince people he’s really a fiscal conservative – this could be over in no time. So far Romney and Rick Santorum, and for that matter Newt Gingrich, haven’t convinced the majority of Republicans yet.

Super Tuesday should give all of us a better idea of who will end up winning the nomination. Or whether the likelihood of a brokered convention will happen instead. Time will tell.

Both the primary and the general.

I will be upfront. I voted for Romney today, but I only slightly favor him over Santorum or Gingrich. I have no problem voting for any of these three in the general election. Of course, that is a very low hurdle to jump. At this point, I am so disgusted with Obama’s policies that I would vote for a ham sandwich over Obama. (Not that I believe everyone would vote such way.)

Santorum has policies I could get behind and promote. I am even OK with some of his supporters, mostly those who have been for him since the beginning. However, the big anti-Rombots have been particularly obnoxious jerks as of late and that includes Erick.

Because he thought that that Tsongas was going to be a weak candidate in the general and Clinton had to be stopped. What he also didn’t tell folks was that Tsongas was a good friend of his!

Say we assume Romney was voting against his friend purely as a dirty tactic to spoil for the Dems, why is it wrong now when the Dems do the same!

Spare me the outrage as well.

I can’t help but wonder what Erick would have posted if Romney had done this and not Santorum.

these are UAW gimps.

they wouldn’t vote for santorum in the general if you put a gun to their head.

they will vote for him now because they know he doesn’t have chance in the general.

Romney appealing to moderate republicans and independents is not comparable to calling UAW thugs to try to persuade them to pick the weaker GOP candidate…there isn’t anything remotely comparable.

And EE has the gall to knock Jennifer Rubin for shilling when he shills for anybody but.

Listen Erick, i don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but its not jennifer Rubin who is singing off Markos Moulistsas and the UAW’s hymn sheet.

Its you and rush and bill kristol.

And you aren’t even for santorum. You’re just for anybody but romney.

lets see how far that gets us in november

on the Cavuto show. Insisted that there is no way the four of them left in the race would allow such a thing after all of the work they have all put into the race.

Guess he doesn’t understand that if no one gets the required amount of votes it will go to a convention whether the four of them like it or not. Thought that was a strange thing for him to say.

Translation:

I have lost in my “home” state, a contest that I have said was important, and a state that I predicted I would win….but now it’s all about delegates.

By the way, could you assist me while I douse my hair in lighter fluid?

What’s Miit’s problem?

To “SantorumState” and “RickAir”, respectively.

Romney winning GOP and Indies, Santorum up big with Dems. But Dems are just 10% of the voters.

“Attention all Democrats: Gov. Rick Snyder just endorsed Mitt Romney, the same Mitt Romney who said [Romney: ‘let Detroit go bankrupt.’] Mitt Romney doesn’t care about Michigan. This Tuesday is our chance to send Romney and Gov. Snyder a message. So please, go vote on Tuesday for Rick Santorum in the Republican primary. Now voting for Rick Santorum on Tuesday does not mean you’re becoming a Republican. You’ll still be able to vote in the Michigan Democratic Party caucuses and to reelect President Obama in November. This is our chance to send a message to Gov. Rick Snyder and his buddy Mitt Romney, who wants to [Romney: ‘let Detriot go bankrupt.’] Remember: a vote for Rick Santorum is a vote to embarrass Gov. Rick Snyder and Mitt Romney. Vote Santorum on Tuesday.”

Telling voters they will still be able to vote and reelect Obama in November sure doesn’t sound like Rick is going after Indies and Reagan Dems, huh?

Sad that we can’t disassociate the candidates from the actions and recognize this for what it is — pathetic.

cnn just interviewed first dem who voted for santorum.

asked how it made him feel he said ‘i needed to go home and take shower,’ but he added that ‘strategically’ it was the right thing to do.

you can spin working hand in hand with moulitsas any way you want…doesn’t make it right.

id love erick to share the esoteric data that makes him think one of the not-romneys has a better chance in the general. I say esoteric because all the data available to public clearly shows romney is the guy with the best shot.

and don’t come back with some moronic 2 day old poll. Romney’s been at or ahead of osama for 4 months. Santorum for 2 weeks.

So none of that BS. Lets look at the big picture.

A longtime liberal radio host asking Democratic listeners to vote for Rick Santorum in Michigan’s Republican primary told CNN Tuesday he loves making mischief. After spending nearly all of his three hour program encouraging Democrats to get out and vote for Santorum Tuesday, Tony Trupiano makes no apologies for his mischief. “Because Rick Santorum is doing as well as he is doing here in the polls, we could actually take some serious delegates away from him [Mitt Romney],” Trupiano said….

It turns out many Democrats in this state don’t need a lot of convincing to engage in this kind of strategic voting.

At a polling station in Dearborn Heights, Crystal Larson said her vote for Santorum made her “feel like I made a deal with the devil.”

“Voting for Santorum goes against everything I believe in and everything I’ve ever stood for in my life and to vote for him takes a lot of guts I think,” Larson said.

She said she hadn’t received any of the robo calls, but heard about the Democratic effort in the media and decided to vote for Santorum at the last minute.

Gary Zulinski, also voting in Dearborn Heights, said, “I was listening and Democrats were asked to us come and I said ‘Why not, this is my way of voting.’ That’s my right. There are so many people who don’t exercise that right. This is my way of saying ‘Hey, I’ve had enough.’”

Democratic stagiest Joe DiSano has been on an active campaign to get Democrats out for Santorum in effort to hurt Romney. He recorded a robo call and has sent tens of thousands of e-mails to Democratic voters encouraging them to go to the polls.

“We are turning them out and feel we can provide a massive jolt and scare to the GOP establishment here in the state and in Washington, DC. When we are done they’ll be taking Pepto Bismol by the gallon at the RNC,” DiSano told CNN Tuesday.

“If Romney were able to close the deal, a religious fanatic like Rick Santorum would not have a chance in a state like Michigan. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Santorum turns out to be the winner tonight,” he said.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/28/democrats-in-michigan-explain-crossover-vote-campaign/

And from CNNLiveBlog:

6:28 p.m. ET – @DanaBashCNN interviewed a Michigan voter who considers himself a Democrat but voted for Santorum, who he said would be the least competitive candidate against President Barack Obama in 2012. How did he feel after he voted? “A little dirty … went home and showered,” he replied.

This is not the text you’re looking for.

They show Democrap voting at about 10%, compared to 7% in 2008 (where there was a Dem primary of ourse). I think in 2000 there was much more Dem voting in Michigan Rep primary — maybe 19% or so.

Anyway perhaps not so much of a factor this time.

The hacks at Pollutico have Mitt winning.

according to CNN just now.

Romney-127
Gingrich-38
Santorum-37
Paul-27

Depending on tonight’s election results, the most of the delegates will be split between Romney and Santorum. Just as Gingrich argued the Fla. winner take all primary, I wonder if that was ever decided, and if AZ will remain a winner take all state. We will see if the RNC holds to their own rules.

just paul bagala and EE and Markos Moulitsas…

all for santorum in michigan.

vs the republicans

Romney has not run a campaign on issues. He has run a smear campaign built on lies.

Both he and Santorum are disgusting. I will never vote for either one if they are the nominee. Santorum is just acting like the conservative big union pro life democrat he really is. Both hate the free market and want to ignore the Constitution.

And don’t tell me how moral Santorum is. As Catholics, we are called to be known by our good works. Where are his? We are told to love our neighbor and to love the sinner but hate the sin. Doesn’t seem to apply to ol’ sanctimonius Rick. Rick is drawn to the most extreme, inflammatory aspects of Catholic theology and exploits them in a way that is not Christian to burnish his evangelical street cred.

Pretend Mitt Romney never entered the field this election cycle: Say, Santorum, Perry, Paul, Gingrich, Bachmann, (I left out Cain because he still would have had his same troubles, and I left out Pawlenty because he dropped out quickly when anyone else got votes).

I say not one of the candidates listed–Santorum,, Perry, Paul, Gingrich, Bachmann (remove her if you wish since she did drop out) could beat Obama because no way could they get some Democratic voters who aren’t fond of Obama nor could they persuade Indies to go their way. Not_one_of_these, even w/out Romney in the field.

So I fail to see where the backers of the others get off saying Romney is preventing a REAL CONSERVATIVE from a chance of winning the Presidency since these candidates stand NO chance of winning it anyway.

WashPost-ABC News Poll: Romney’s Stature Among Conservatives Plunging

Read more on Newsmax.com: WashPost-ABC News Poll: Romney’s Stature Among Conservatives Plunging
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama’s Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/favorability-Arizona-Michigan-primaries/2012/02/28/id/430880

Conservatives should hold principle above an “ends justify the means” politics. If Democrats are crossing over to try and create mischief — if that is their motivation — then it is just wrong. I held the same position when Rush was pushing Republicans to support Hillary. I felt that he was advocating something that would cause the loss of the moral position . I never felt comfortable with what Rush was doing, and it is only made worse by his repeating as a reason that it creates excitement and helps ratings (a statement he made again today.)

I like Rick Santorum a lot, and he does have genuine appeal to conservative Democrats and independents. If the rules are that Democrats can vote in Republican primaries, and they cross over because they like a candidate, then those are the rules. But if they are crossing over because of the Daily Kos position of creating mischief, then it is wrong.

Regardless, I do not understand a conservative stalwart like EE defending the policy of Democrats crossing over and voting in Republican primaries. Republicans should select their own candidates, not let the Democrats help select them.

I fear that Rick Santorum is going to be hurt by running these robocalls at the last minute because of the open campaign by Daily Kos and Michael Moore to support Democrats voting for him. He should have pulled the plug on this, both because of his own stated view that Democrats should not vote in the GOP primary and because the appearance will hurt him down the line. He has a very good shot of winning the GOP nod, but now Romney can spin this (and who would blame him) and Santorum also loses the moral high ground.

Republicans should be deciding Republican primaries.

And Santorum is doing it with a robocall disparaging Romney for NOT supporting the auto-bailout. Of course in the call he doesn’t mention that he would have voted against the auto-bailout. And 99% of the people who frequent this site did NOT support the auto-bailout. But since it is Anti-Romney, it gets commended with front page status on this site.

They think that they are going to throw the GOP into disarray by voting for Santorum in Michigan . . . excuse me for a moment . . .

Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Sorry, couldn’t hold that in.

of Romney winning both states tonight…

but looks like Santorum misfired trying to get the liberal dems to vote for him so publicly. That playing all over the media yesterday and today almost definitely swung some republicans back to Romney.

in the GA primary then Obama in November. Smart woman, annoying except when sleeping. Nuff said on monsters.

I have no problem with Santorum calling all dems, call them all unless they feel a detached rich 1 percenter is good enough for them. Fact is Santorum or Newt will ignite the party and that’s what we need to boost November turnout.

Looking at motives and listening very closely to Levin and sifting it through my mind, I have come to this conclusion. I will vote for anyone but Obama…..but…from the noise I am hearing around my neighborhood (very Conservative)….they don’t like Romney…and that is not good for the GOP. This is the base of the party. Will they go to the polls…don’t know. They are buying survival food and bullets.

When Romney was debating Perry he made some remark to the effect that education was at the top in MA. Levin pointed out the that Romney’s governorship has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION. Yet…WILLARD took credit for it. God…I sometimes think I am listening to Obama.

Then we have Santorum. Goodie…he is going to revive the manufacturing in this country. How…Rick…do we pay more taxes to make up for their 0% tax rate????????????? Oh…and where does most of the money go to these days…THE UNIONS!

That leaves me with only one person to vote for…Gingrich because at least he has ideas and can get things DONE. And, while I am at it…what happened to our Grand Old Party? Can’t they see that if this circus continues to go on…i.e., Romney at Santorum’s throat and vice versa, we are going to lose.

The press has blocked out Gingrich…same as they did Perry. That is who the the threat is to Obama…not Santorum…not Romney.

As a side note…Snowe decided to retire…and guess what…that leaves us JUST TWO WEEKS to find someone else to run in her place in Maine. Oh well…I hope DeMint is still looking for Conservative candidates.