Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Can Santorum Go Up The Middle For An Upset?

As Newt Gingrich slams Crazy Uncle Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, Crazy Uncle Ron slams Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney slamming both, is there someone that can rise above it all and win the Iowa caucus scheduled for next Tuesday?
That is the question posed by National Review's Rich Lowry.
However, Mr. Lowry does not provide an answer.
So, I will.
And I think that this could be the opening one Rick Santorum may be looking for to pull off an upset in the Iowa caucus.
Yeah, Mr. Santorum is not burning up the poll numbers according to the Real Clear Politics averages. But if you look at the graph closely, Mr. Santorum's numbers are moving up. The closest to him would be Congressman Michele Bachmann at nine percent and going down. Then there is Texas governor Rick Perry at a flat-line 12%.
When you consider that there are six announced candidates and one, Jon Huntsman, Jr. is all but writing off the Hawkeye State, It can take as little as 25% to win the caucus.
And when you think about the fact that Mr. Santorum's numbers are going up and he is the only candidate to visit all 99 Iowa counties, there is something potentially going on.
And again, if caucus goers don't like what they see as The Three Stooges in Messrs. Gingrich, Paul and Romney, many may take that second look at someone like Mr. Santorum.
John McCormick at The Weekly Standard does a great job explaining why Mr. Santorum could pull off a win in Iowa. And radio talker Hugh Hewitt, a known Romney supporter in 2008 and leaning his way now is fair. He is pointing out how the Leftywhore media is writing about Mr. Santorum as they write about Mr. Romney. All negative, all the time.
But I want to respond to this Mr. McCormick wrote in the negative about Mr. Santorum and the Leftywhore media GOP establishment Axis:

There are reasons why pundits say Santorum can’t win. One is that he’s washed up—having lost his Senate seat by 18 points to Bob Casey Jr. in 2006. Santorum counters that he won two of his three statewide races as a conservative running in Democratic Pennsylvania—first in the 1994 Republican revolution and again in 2000, when he won by 6 points while George W. Bush was losing the state by 5 points.


UGH! So what that Mr. Santorum lost his senate reelection bid in 2006. By 18 fricking points. The 2006 election was a Democrat massacre against the Republicans. And one of the scalps big on the Democrat mantle was a Pennsylvania senator named Santorum. Funny how the same Axis of Evil never went after some dolt named Lincoln Chafee. He ran as a Republican the same year for the Rhode Island senate seat. And he lost. In 2010, he ran as an independent for the governor's office in Rhode Island. And won. Even Ronald Reagan lost a couple of runs at the presidency.
And that somehow, Mr. Santroum is overly polarizing. Really? More than Mr. Polarizing himself, the Dear Leader, President Obama? Because Mr. Santorum actually believes what he says? As long as he can articulate it and back it up, he will not have a problem in any way.
The problem for Mr. Santorum is that he may not have peaked right to make a difference in Iowa. That is a real concern for Team Santorum.
But maybe all the fighting at the top of the field is the opening that Mr. Santorum needs to pull of the Iowa Upset.

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