Posts tagged Rick Santorum

This Grand Old Project

35
1 month ago
by Monotreme in
Shooting the messenger.

Shoot­ing the messenger.

In Decem­ber, Repub­li­can Party Chair Reince “and repeat” Priebus embarked on a reëx­am­i­na­tion of the party’s future. He com­mis­sioned an “autopsy” of the party’s elec­toral failings.

The report is for­mally called the Growth and Oppor­tu­nity Project.

(Get it…GOP! Pretty spiffy mar­ket­ing twist there, don’t you think? We hired the same guy who named New Coke and Orca.)

Accord­ing to Politico’s Jonathan Mar­tin and Mag­gie Haber­man, the report has trig­gered the oft-​​avoided civil war the Repub­li­can Party has been fear­ing. (more…)

What A Snob!

78
3 months ago
by filistro in

college-is-for-suckers-the-first-college-guide-you-should-readIn his State of the Union speech last Jan­u­ary, Pres­i­dent Obama out­lined an ini­tia­tive to make col­lege more acces­si­ble by reform­ing fed­eral stu­dent aid and pro­vid­ing incen­tives for col­leges to keep their tuition fees under con­trol. A month later, speak­ing to a group of Tea Party activists in Troy, Michi­gan, then-​​Presidential-​​candidate Rick San­to­rum made ref­er­ence to the president’s plan. “Pres­i­dent Obama once said he wants every­body in Amer­ica to go to col­lege,” he said, then added with with­er­ing con­tempt, “What a snob!”

I found this state­ment a bit shock­ing, but at the time dis­missed it as one of Santorum’s stan­dard appeals to his base of what are euphemisti­cally called “low infor­ma­tion vot­ers”. How­ever, dur­ing the inter­ven­ing months I’ve noticed more and more of the same sen­ti­ment in arti­cles and pub­lic state­ments, imply­ing that it is snob­bish, waste­ful and some­what effete to attend col­lege, and that a col­lege edu­ca­tion is not really nec­es­sary for a suc­cess­ful life. Oddly enough, many of these obser­va­tions are com­ing from con­ser­v­a­tives who are nor­mally seen as the party of the mon­eyed élite, while most Democ­rats, the so-​​called “work­ing class,” appar­ently remain com­mit­ted to the dream of a col­lege edu­ca­tion for their chil­dren. This makes me won­der if the major Amer­i­can polit­i­cal par­ties might cur­rently be under­go­ing one of their occa­sional sea-​​changes, wherein they retain their labels but swap out many of their cul­tural val­ues.  (more…)

Santorum Drops Out

15
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in ,

With the del­e­gate counts and future states’ rules point­ing to an obvi­ous con­clu­sion, for­mer Sen­a­tor Rick San­to­rum (R-​​PA) announced today that he is drop­ping out of the race for President.

With that, the field is cleared for for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Mitt Rom­ney, and the elec­tion enters a new phase. From here on out, it’s a sim­ple Rom­ney vs. Obama story.

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Reëlection Watch: April 2012

23
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

At least once every month between now and the gen­eral elec­tion, we exam­ine the reëlec­tion land­scape for Pres­i­dent Barack Obama. Each time, we take a look at the var­i­ous fac­tors that typ­i­cally influ­ence elec­tion out­comes, and com­pare them to the pre­vi­ous month.

So, how are things going for the Pres­i­dent this month?

(more…)

Republican Delegate Counts: April 7

25
1 year ago
by Monotreme in

One big ele­phant and two lit­tle ones. The wal­rus is Paul.

We’re in a three-​​week hia­tus with no pri­maries or cau­cuses, which prob­a­bly accounts for the pun­di­toc­racy focus­ing on the sta­tus of the horse — uh, make that ele­phant — race.

A sure sign that for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Mitt Rom­ney has the nom­i­na­tion all but sewn up: Politico has turned to hand­i­cap­ping the Vice-​​Presidential slot. Politico’s Mag­gie Haber­man feels for­mer Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get direc­tor and cur­rent Sen­a­tor Rob Port­man (R-​​OH) is the favorite.

We at Log­a­rchism like to look at Intrade num­bers. As of Fri­day on Intrade, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-​​FL) is the favorite with a 25 per­cent chance of secur­ing the VP nom­i­na­tion, fol­lowed by New Jer­sey Gov­er­nor Chris Christie (11 per­cent), Vir­ginia Gov­er­nor Bob McDon­nell (nine per­cent), Port­man (nine per­cent), Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Paul Ryan (R-​​Janesville, WI) (nine per­cent), and New Mex­ico Gov­er­nor Susana Mar­tinez (eight percent).

Romney’s Intrade num­bers are a vir­tu­ally cer­tain 96 per­cent, with none of the other can­di­dates above one percent.

To see the rea­son why, exam­ine the graph of del­e­gate counts (data cour­tesy of The New York Times/​Associated Press), after the jump. (more…)

Republican Primaries: Maryland, DC, Wisconsin

27
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Today looks like it’s shap­ing up to be a very good day for for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Mitt Rom­ney. Per­haps his cam­paign has man­aged to shake the Etch-​​A-​​Sketch meme.

Two states, plus our sole dis­trict, vote today: Mary­land, Wis­con­sin, and the Dis­trict of Columbia.

Mary­land has 37 del­e­gates up for grabs in a closed pri­mary. Three are the usual assigned to the party, ten are at-​​large winner-​​take-​​all, and the remain­ing 24 are Con­gres­sional dis­trict winner-​​take-​​all.

Rom­ney is assured to get the three party del­e­gates and the ten at-​​large del­e­gates. He’s also pretty much assured to get all but maybe three of the 24 dis­tricts. The pan­han­dle is for­mer Sen­a­tor Rick Santorum’s (R-​​PA) strongest ter­ri­tory, and he may pick up one or two dis­tricts over there, which would trans­late to three or six delegates*.

Wis­con­sin has 42 del­e­gates avail­able in an open pri­mary. Aside from the three party del­e­gates, there are 15 at-​​large winner-​​take-​​all, and 24 Con­gres­sional dis­trict winner-​​take-​​all delegates.

As in Mary­land, there’s lit­tle doubt that Rom­ney will take the party and at-​​large del­e­gates, given his near-​​double-​​digit lead over San­to­rum in all polls. But San­to­rum may be able to pick off a bet­ter ratio of the dis­trict del­e­gates than he can in Mary­land. Even so, Wis­con­sin can be expected to increase Romney’s del­e­gate lead over the for­mer Senator.

The Dis­trict of Colum­bia has 19 del­e­gates in a closed pri­mary. There are the three party del­e­gates, plus 16 winner-​​take-​​all. One party del­e­gate has already been assigned to Romney.

This one’s a real snoozer. Rom­ney will walk away with all 19 del­e­gates, period.

So, yes, today’s a very good day for Rom­ney. And a very bad day for those who have been hop­ing that some­thing, any­thing, will keep the increas­ingly inevitable Romi­na­tion from com­ing to pass.

*Note: in an ear­lier ver­sion of the arti­cle, I incor­rectly stated that San­to­rum might win one or two del­e­gates. In fact, since each dis­trict has three winner-​​take-​​all del­e­gates, San­to­rum would either get three or zero for each district.

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