BEHOLDEN TO MANY – TO WHOM?

Santorum has been imitating Gingrich imitating Michael Jackson lately in his interviews and debates when confronted with his ties to lobbyists when he was in the Senate. Facts are tough!

In 2006, Mr. Santorum was the highest recipient of lobbyist funds — BY FAR! No other senator was even close. The second place senator was 28% lower. Open Secrets Fact: CLICK

Check this 45-second clip:

Rick Santorum is beholden to many people and interests. Which favors would a President Santorum have to repay? And to whom?

ABC is reporting that Donald Trump recently recorded a robo-call for Governor Romney that will be heard by tens of thousands of voters in Michigan next Tuesday. Excerpts from the ABC piece:

“This is Donald Trump and I have to tell you that I’m tired of Rick Santorum pretending that he’s some kind of DC outsider,” Trump says on the call.

Trump dismisses the former Pennsylvania senator as a “career politician” who has “never had a job in the private sector.” He accuses Santorum of working as a lobbyist before and after serving in Washington.

“Rick Santorum is completely entrenched in the Washington culture and he has been for decades,” Trump says.

(Santorum worked for a law firm that lobbied on behalf of the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980′s and worked as a consultant to several companies after he lost his re-election bid to the U.S. Senate in 2006.)
[...]
“I don’t think they believe it’s going to happen,” Trump said of the possibility that the Republican Party might nominate Santorum, “but boy, would they like it to happen because that would be an easy election.”

On the robo-call, which will begin on Tuesday, Trump calls Romney an “outsider in the race” who “knows how to handle” China and OPEC — two of Trump’s most-frequently cited international bogeymen.

Santorum’s many ties to lobbyists and lobbying — CLICK

Santorum’s many “causes” — CLICK

Santorum influenced by lobbying: CLICK

Please Check Out These Other “Threads” in the #UnravelTheSweater Series:

• Series Intro: Operation #UnravelTheSweater
• Rick Santorum’s Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Hypocrisy
• Rick Santorum – #1 Recipient of Lobby Money
• Santorum: Separation of Church and State “Makes Me Want to Throw Up”
• Colleague Support for Rick Santorum? Crickets…
• Rick Santorum’s Effusive Promotion of Mitt in 2008
• Rick Santorum’s Serious Electability Issues
• Romney SuperPAC Hits Santorum on Spending – Fact Check Verified
• Santorum’s Courage Betrayed by Willingness to Sacrifice Core Principles
• Rick Santorum vs. Protestant Christians
• Santorum’s Poor Record of Charitable Giving
• Rick Santorum – Unprepared and Unqualified
• Rick Santorum – Lots of Rhetoric… Little Action
• Fleshing Out the Truth About Rick Santorum
• Big Government Rick Santorum is NOT the One

The CNN debate last week had a moment that was unbelievable and yet fully revealing!

When Santorum said, “It [my vote] was against the principles I believed in…” — I paused the TV stream and said to Cindy my wife, “I can’t believe he just said that! Unbelievable!” On national TV, Santorum freely admitted that he has no problem whatsoever compromising his principles! The one thing all Americans despise in most politicians is their lack of conviction to principles. That propensity to sacrifice core principles for expediency is precisely why Americans want “to kick the bums out of Washington.”

And when Santorum was asked to give one word to describe himself, he ironically chose “Courage” as that most descriptive word! Could it be that he was using the word to describe his courage to admit to the world that his principles aren’t really foundational? What about his core? It is my opinion that this one debate moment was the most revealing of any debate moment of the 20 we have seen this cycle!

As you watch this short video clip, watch is face. He freely admits his ability to sacrifice his principles:

His admitting the betrayal of core principles only exacerbates the most obvious weakness he has: Zero executive leadership experience. Read more…

A new poll came out today showing Mitt with a 2% lead over Rick Santorum in Michigan.

Gallup’s Tracking Poll yesterday showed Mitt with a new nationwide lead, but that’s just window-dressing (note the link is to the poll as updated daily, so the results may have changed by the time you click on it; for the story at CNN click here).

More importantly, since the nomination is won state by state, the real story is that PPP‘s polling today showed Mitt up 39% to 37% in Michigan:

Mitt Romney’s taken a small lead over Rick Santorum in PPP’s newest Michigan poll. He’s at 39% to 37% for Santorum, 13% for Ron Paul, and 9% for Newt Gingrich. Compared to a week ago Romney’s gained 6 points, while Santorum’s just stayed in place.

Even better news, however, is that Mitt may have a lead in early voting that Santorum could find hard to overcome:

Romney will go into election day with a large lead in the bank. Only 16% of Michigan voters say they’ve already cast their ballots, but Romney has a whooping 62-29 advantage over Santorum with that group. Santorum actually leads Romney 39-34 with those who are planning to cast their votes on Tuesday, but he’d need to win election day voters by even more than that to neutralize the advantage Romney’s built up.

As I’ve been opining here on MittRomneyCentral, Santorum’s very socially conservative comments appear to be doing him damage, even among those that are inclined to agree with him (and I thought the damage would be mostly with the independents; also note who’s running the negative ads):

The last week of the campaign in Michigan has seen significant damage to Santorum’s image with GOP voters in the state. His net favorability has declined 29 points from +44 (67/23) to now only +15 (54/39). Negative attacks on Romney meanwhile have had no negative effect with his favorability steady at +20 (57/37). Two weeks ago Santorum’s net favorability in Michigan was 34 points better than Romney’s. Now Romney’s is 5 points better than Santorum’s. Those kinds of wild swings are the story of the GOP race.

One place Santorum may have hurt himself in the last week is an overemphasis on social issues. 69% of voters say they’re generally more concerned with economic issues this year to only 17% who pick social issues. And with the overwhelming majority of voters more concerned about the economy, Romney leads Santorum 45-30. Santorum’s winning those more concerned about social issues 79-12 but it’s just not that big a piece of the pie.

Mitt is also cutting into Santorum’s lead in key support groups:

Romney has made significant in roads with all of Santorum’s key groups of support. 2 weeks ago Santorum had leads around 30 points with Evangelicals, Tea Party voters, and those describing themselves as ‘very conservative.’ Santorum’s still winning all those groups, but by significantly diminished margins- it’s only 7 points with Evangelicals and Tea Partiers and 10 with ‘very conservative’ Republicans.

So much for not being able to convince the conservative base. Did anyone really believe that? Bueller?

A Few Other Thoughts

Mitt’s Availability to the Press. Interestingly there were two contrasting stories in Politico today, one criticizing Mitt for not appearing on Meet the Press, with the other reporting how available he has been to local talk shows in Michigan. Hmm…if I were running for a national office but the voting was state-by-state, where would I go? National shows or the ones where the voters are? (LOTS MORE AFTER THE BREAK!)

Read more…

A colleague of mine is a devout Catholic — a family man that I highly respect. About four months ago before Santorum got any traction, I asked him what he and other Catholics thought of Santorum generally. His answer surprised me. He said, “Oh, most people I know see Santorum as really ‘out there’ and way too extreme — he makes a lot of people uncomfortable with his far right views.” I suspect his opinion is not that far off off that of other conservatives.

Even before Santorum’s latest utterances, he was considered not nearly as likely to beat Obama as Romney in a general election. Friday’s WSJ had two articles that pretty much state that if Santorum doesn’t alter his rhetoric, there is no way he will beat Obama. The first article is by Kimberly Strassel, titled Moralizer in Chief and the second is by Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Journal’s editorial board, titled Democrats Are Praying for a Santorum Nomination.

All voters should ask if they would want a President to impose his moral views on them using government.

Strassel begins her Op-Ed with a “baloney” comment:

Asked at the close of Wednesday’s Arizona debate what the biggest “misconception” about him is in this primary, Rick Santorum acknowledged voters worry he can’t “defeat Barack Obama.” Give the man credit for a little awareness.

Only it’s not a misconception, at least not now. The former senator has a potentially fatal general-election liability on social issues. His supporters may admire him for taking on this subject, and they may be swallowing his argument that this is nothing more than a media-conjured controversy. But that’s baloney. Read more…

Imagine what would happen in the media and the press if Newt Gingrich (or any other Republican) were to utter these words in any medium:

“This month, we are announcing the launch of Irish Americans for Gingrich.”

Not only would Gingrich be done as a presidential hopeful that minute, he would probably be mobbed at his home and run out of town the same day!

Governor Romney’s church is widely known for being able to organize tens of thousands of people for a focused effort in a matter of hours. What if he were to say this to every member of his church?

“You can help out by becoming a congregation captain of your local church.”

He too would be laughed to scorn and reduced to an asterisk in history!

And yet, have you heard of this announcement by Obama? I too had not and yet this YouTube has well over 1,000,000 views! This “launch” was also described here at PrisonPlanet:

Remember when Obama was elected President, everybody in the media was talking how that event was likely to be a major turning point in American history to leave racism in the past and to look to the future without racism? Obama was probably so wrapped up in the adoration of throngs of people in those days that he never got the word that racism was supposed to be over.

And yet, in this piece, Obama has the gall to mention slavery even! If you were not looking at his face and did not recognize his voice, you might think this was Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton — two guys who make their living by keeping racism and discussions of slavery alive!

And get this. He has the shear arrogance to state the following in this spot, referring to Americans:

“Where everybody plays by the same rules.”

Really? This short video is a bald-face appeal to race and nothing less! What rules does Obama follow? Even after saying what he does in this clip, he would publicly decry any statement by any of the Republican candidates that even resembled the statements he makes about race in his “launch” of African Americans for Obama.

His arrogance extends even further by his outright asking people to “go into [their] churches” to take the lead and to organize on his behalf as a politician! Most Americans know that churches are exempt from paying taxes as long as they follow certain rules. One of the most important of all rules is that leaders and members of churches are not to organize for political purposes or to use their churches to promote one candidate over another. They may be used for voting places, but that is it! If churches violate these rules, they can be forced to pay large fines or worse, taxes. At least Santorum does this secretly and not overtly as Obama did in this video!

UNBELIEVABLE

If Obama was secure in the accomplishments of his presidency and he knew that this year’s presidential campaign would not be a referendum on him as a leader, he would not need to stoop to such an awful low — to use race in this way. The only logical conclusion is that he is desperate and willing to do anything to keep power. And since nobody has called him out on this, there is no telling what measures he will next take in his bid for extended power.

STUNNING

“Christian virtues unite men. Racism separates them.” — Sargent Shriver
.

In just the latest statement proving Santorum is not electable, today Santurom said JFK’s speech about separation of church and state “makes me want to throw up.”

The story was reported at Politico:

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the notion of religion not playing role in politics “makes me want to throw up.”

“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up. What kind of country do we live in where only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up. And that should make every American [throw up],” Santorum said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Part of the problem is, of course, that JFK was trying to address a broader question at the time. When JFK made his speech, he was trying to reassure non-Catholics that he would not blindly follow the commands of the Vatican if elected president. What JFK said that Santorum found nauseating was the following (quote below is from JFK):

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote–where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference–and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish–where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source–where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials–and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

Rick, on the other hand, says:
Read more…

Taking a cue from today’s annual 84th presentation of the Academy Awards, today CNN’s Candy Crowley shared her light-hearted version of ‘Campaign Awards’ on her program State of The Union:

A close up look at some of the best moments from the 2012 GOP race…
And the Oscar goes to:

Agree? Or, Razzies? (Seeing Crowley’s review reminds me how happy I am we’re down to four candidates!)

What award would you give Obama?

A couple of days ago, NBC’s Garrett Haake woke up to something we’ve known all along. The Romney-is-stiff meme, which talking heads cunningly perpetuate, is a big, fat lie:

Live from Kalamazoo, it’s Mitt Romney!

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Maybe it was something about being back home in Michigan, or the fact that it’s nearly the weekend, or just a touch of punchiness after a long day, but Friday night Mitt Romney, yes that Mitt Romney, was just plain funny.

The sometimes-Republican frontrunner, whose reputation for stiffness and an inability to connect with voters on a personal level has long been taken as gospel by campaign-watchers, opened his town hall here tonight as he often does, with an anecdote about his father, a former Michigan governor. But this story was a little different than usual.

“We were in Detroit this morning, at the Detroit Economic Club, then through Mount Clemens, then drove here across the interstate. Drove past Brighton. My parents’ grave sites are there,” Romney explained. “My dad — trust my dad. My dad is a very frugal man. He checked all over for where the best deal was on a grave site. And he found a place in Brighton — because we didn’t live in Brighton. It’s like, how did you pick Brighton dad? Well, best price I could find in the whole state. So if you’re looking for the best deal on a grave site, check Brighton, they got a good spot you’ll be near the former governor and first lady.”

Governor Romney was on a roll; he ad-libbed…

Confronted with a question about space exploration and NASA, Romney refused to promise more funding for exploration, saying he preferred to focus on promoting basic science through NASA.

He made light of China’s attempt to achieve its own moon landing.

“I know China is headed to the moon,” Romney said. “They’re planning on going to the moon, and some people say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get to the moon, we’ve got to get there in a hurry to prove we can get there before China.’ It’s like, guys, we were there a long time ago, all right? And when you get there would you bring back some of the stuff we left?”

Romney saved a sure laugh for the end – the one which snagged the Crowley Campaign Award:

Wrapping the event after more than 40 minutes on stage (he said he’d been there an hour), he made mention of an infamous political gaffe by a fellow Massachusetts governor.

“I’m getting the cut off and I won’t make the sign of the cut off because there’s a lot of cameras around here and that’ll be used against me down the road… just like Michael Dukakis’ hat in that tank,” Romney said. “There’s some things you just cannot do in politics anymore.”

As Neil Cavuto told Jersey Man Ken Dunek on Feb 14, 2012:

… We all remember Michael Dukakis in the tank. The stories are legend that John Kennedy never wanted to be photographed in a hat. He was wise. It’s a good rule for anyone running for office, because someone looks goofy in a hat. That whole thing hurt Dukakis. It could be a vignette or a moment that can make or break you.

Hey, The Gov knows his stuff. Nothing on his head except a ball cap.

Time to roll out the red carpet for Romney!

► Jayde Wyatt

Mr. Santorum has decided to join Gingrich in the whining gallery. Those who have followed MRC’s coverage of Newt Gingrich know that one word we have used often to describe his rhetoric concerning Governor Romney is “whiner.” In fact, I believe that a Newtonian classic set-up to any of his arguments is almost always the big whine.

Well, now Mr. Santorum has decided to try that same Newtonian line of reasoning. Isn’t it interesting though that when Santorum is ahead in some poll, he takes all the credit for the lead, but when he drops behind, he starts whining and blaming others for the erosion? Sound familiar? Gingrich is the expert at this. He and his team have probably strategized that the Gingrich whine is the best line of attack now.

Santorum is complaining that Ron Paul seems to be ganging up with Governor Romney to defeat Santorum in upcoming states such as Michigan. From the very beginning of the horse race, we know that Governor Romney has dropped from the lead in the polls a few times as he has been relentlessly attacked using false and completely misleading tidbits of information by all the candidates simultaneously. Has Governor Romney ever complained or whined about their “collusion”?

Never.

Click through here to read the big NYT article about Santorum’s whining and to see the video created by Ron Paul that Santorum does not like (35 seconds): Read more…

A new get-to-the-meat ad from Team Romney focuses on the one word Rick Santorum used to describe himself at this weeks GOP CNN debate…

Courage?
Don’t you agree that Team Romney really hit the nail on the head with this one?

It’s worth noting that another revealing ad about Santorum, created by Restore Our Future (a pro-Romney Super PAC), was reviewed for its veracity by reporter by Ben Swann from WXIX… Rated TRUE on all points:

Rick Santorum – Radical Big Spender in Conservative’s Clothing

Take a moment to go to Swann’s Facebook page, ‘like’ it, go to his wall to find his related post to the above report, and let him know you appreciate his work.

► Jayde Wyatt

Please Check Out These Other “Threads” in the #UnravelTheSweater Series:

• Series Intro: Operation #UnravelTheSweater
• Rick Santorum’s Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Hypocrisy
• Rick Santorum – #1 Recipient of Lobby Money
• Santorum: Separation of Church and State “Makes Me Want to Throw Up”
• Colleague Support for Rick Santorum? Crickets…
• Rick Santorum’s Effusive Promotion of Mitt in 2008
• Rick Santorum’s Serious Electability Issues
• Romney SuperPAC Hits Santorum on Spending – Fact Check Verified
• Santorum’s Courage Betrayed by Willingness to Sacrifice Core Principles
• Rick Santorum vs. Protestant Christians
• Santorum’s Poor Record of Charitable Giving
• Rick Santorum – Unprepared and Unqualified
• Rick Santorum – Lots of Rhetoric… Little Action
• Fleshing Out the Truth About Rick Santorum
• Big Government Rick Santorum is NOT the One

Arlen and Rick…

A new ad from Romney for President, Inc:

► Jayde Wyatt