Oh Ricky We Hardly Knew Ye

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 2:05pm

Politics

Unfortunately, this seems to be tied to the fact that his daughter isn't doing very well. She was just released from the hospital, but has Trisomy 18, which is a horrible genetic disorder. She's likely to continue to have severe medical issues.

I think that Santorum's campaign, although surprising, has not been good for the GOP. I do give him credit that he's been able to trip up Romney more than anyone thought possible a year ago. But his coalition, such as it is, is not something the Republicans really want on display.

So,

(#278406)

Submitted by Bird Dog on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 3:19pm.

he's suspending his campaign so he can spend more time with his family? Do you honestly find that believable? Santorum was going to lose his home state to Romney. Better to step out now than face that piece of political humiliation.

Government is merely a servant – merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

It Is My Fondest Wish. . .

(#278407)

Submitted by M Scott Eiland on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 3:34pm.

. . .that Mr. Santorum's daughter will ultimately beat her illness and live a long and healthy life. At some point during those decades, Mr. Santorum should humbly thank her for sparing him from the brutal humiliation that would have been forthcoming barring his duty (and desire) to be with her in her time of need.

The universe may well have been created without a point--that doesn't imply that we can't give it one.

I'm not sure

(#278410)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 4:05pm.

obviously the political considerations indicate that it's best to not lose one's home state, although absent a Romney complete and total meltdown the writing's on the wall as far as his nomination is concerned. But if my daughter was in and out of hospitals as much as his daughter is, and her prognosis was as bad as hers is, I'd seriously consider spending as much time as possible with her if I could afford it.

I blame it all on the Internet

Personally I'd seriously consider following

(#278416)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 4:39pm.

God's advice to run for POTUS if He told me to run.

Do Bachmann, Santorum, etc. believe they know better than God Himself? Or is that fickle creator of the universe changing His mind again?

I'd feel better if these GOP candidates could let us know that they spoke to God about dropping out of the race and not just about entering it.

Division of labor...

(#278417)

Submitted by Jay C on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 5:29pm.

God tells them to run for office ---

And we mere mortals get the chance to let them know when they've misinterpreted the Word...

Maybe God is telling them all to run...

(#278418)

Submitted by Jordan on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 5:36pm.

and let God sort 'em out.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

M Aurelius was probably right.

Maybe it was God, or maybe it was the other guy ...

(#278422)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 6:30pm.

If it was "God's will" that Santorum run for president --

Karen Santorum, the wife of GOP presidential front-runner Rick Santorum, told talk show host Glenn Beck on Thursday that it is "God's will" that her husband is seeking the presidency.

-- then it seems reasonable to assume that Santorum no longer seeking the presidency means that Satan has tempted or somehow defeated him.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/karen-santorum-husband-seeking-preside...

I think that the duck-billed platypus proves that God is

(#278427)

Submitted by AndrewSshi on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:20pm.

whimsical enough to set up someone like Santorum or Robertson for a fall strictly for the lulz.

LOL...nt

(#278429)

Submitted by Traveller on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:34pm.

Traveller

Speaking of Robertson

(#278433)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 8:04pm.

He endorsed Romney and called him an "outstanding Christian".

Meanwhile Obama has "socialist" and "Muslim inclinations"

Consider it good news for God and Rick talking in the future

(#278460)

Submitted by brutusettu on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 12:29am.

God told Abraham to do something to Isaac, and after a intervention, they never spoke again.
God never asked Rick to do something so barbaric.

"I’m to believe that North Korea is so dangerously unhinged that they would attack without warning – yet so meek and easily cowed that they will sit quietly and not retaliate when we start bombing them."

Major Kong

I've lost track

(#278431)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:45pm.

is anyone still in the race that Republican Jesus told to run?

I know Hermain Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Santorum all claimed God told them to run, but I don't know about Paul, Gingrich or Romney.

Gingrich decided for himself

(#278436)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 8:29pm.

there is no higher authority.

I blame it all on the Internet

Yeah, but you are a human...

(#278421)

Submitted by M Aurelius on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 6:24pm.

...not a lizard politician.

I'm with Bird Dog on this one. The family thing is never credible. It's not like it's a surprise, either, since it's a genetic disorder. It was factored in. Do you think he would have quit if he was on the way to the White House?

A loss in PA, on the other hand, wasn't acceptable.

I am not a pessimist. I am an incompetent optimist.

All I'm saying

(#278423)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 6:36pm.

is that this is a bit more than the usual "spending more time with the family" line. The odds are that the kid only has a few years to live.

I blame it all on the Internet

"All I'm saying" or "I'm just saying"

(#278424)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 6:46pm.

I heard a nice theory from someone who said that either locution in the majority of cases means: "I prefer to intimate that a certain correlation is actually a case of causation but don't wish to outright state or defend the causal claim"

That might not fit your particular use, but it's plausible as a general account and might work here as well.

Since I heard that I like to keep track of uses of "Alls I'm saying" or "I'm just saying" and see if they fit the account. They usually do.

I guess you missed

(#278425)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:00pm.

the "I'm not sure" at the beginning of the thread. What I'm saying is that it's more plausible in his case that he really does want to spend more time with his daughter.

I blame it all on the Internet

All I'm saying

(#278428)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:31pm.

is that you were saying "All I'm saying".

... sorry.

First you avoid me

(#278435)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 8:27pm.

now you taunt me. What have I done to deserve this?

I blame it all on the Internet

Let's not kid ourselves

(#278440)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 9:34pm.

I've essentially been posting as your teenage son since I started commenting here.

And yet you started commenting here before I did

(#278452)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 11:36pm.

tis truly a paradox.

I blame it all on the Internet

I see what you're saying with 'All I'm saying'...

(#278466)

Submitted by Darth Cuddly on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 7:42am.

...but what I really want to know is if there is any sort of significance to 'Well, what happened was...'

In the medical community, death is known as Chuck Norris Syndrome.

But he knew that six months ago

(#278445)

Submitted by M Aurelius on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 10:55pm.

What he didn't know six months ago was that he was going to go down in his home state.

If victory was at hand, he would run because "that's what his daughter would have wanted daddy to do".

The main thing is that he is being smart to set himself up for 2016. This is a young man, and he came closer to pulling it off than I'm comfortable with. If Romney bites the dust, Santorum will be back soon.

I am not a pessimist. I am an incompetent optimist.

The way I see it

(#278455)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 11:45pm.

there are forces pushing one to run, and forces pushing against one to run. Sure, if he was leading Romney I doubt he'd drop out. But I think on balance he has more on the side of forces pushing him not to run than most other candidates because of his daughters condition. I'm not saying its determinative by itself, but it is an influence.

I blame it all on the Internet

OK, OK, I give up.

(#278469)

Submitted by M Aurelius on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 8:18am.

You think Santorum is at least partly a human being. I think he's 99-44/100% professional pol. Let's just agree to disagree. Call me a cynic if you want, but I think it's just reality.

I am not a pessimist. I am an incompetent optimist.

It's a dangerous country

(#278411)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 4:11pm.

where a Santorum has a reasonable shot at becoming president.

His base was enthusiastic, if he'd pulled off a few more of those very tight early races he might've taken the GOP nomination, and if the economy were to stagnate while he was the nominee, SAntorum had a viable path to the WH.

This is a dangerous country.

Hardly dangerous [Now with edit!]

(#278426)

Submitted by AndrewSshi on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:18pm.

Even if Napoleon would like America to look like 1950s Spain, there are too many institutional constraints. Even in the event of a Santorum coat tail sweep, there's only so much social control that the secular part of the right would be willing to put up with. Remember: Glee runs on Fox...

[EDIT: Using my moderatorly privileges, I'm editing even though there are replies. I meant to write "even if Santorum," but I wrote this after having just finished my lecture on the French Revolution and Napoleon in Western Civ II and so Napoleon just colonized my keyboard.]

Those institutional constraints

(#278430)

Submitted by catchy on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:36pm.

do a lot less constraining when the GOP is in the WH.

Remember, though, how GWB's attempted Social Security

(#278432)

Submitted by AndrewSshi on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 7:53pm.

overhaul went over, and that was with all three branches of government.

With the exception of the Supreme Court

(#278437)

Submitted by HankP on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 8:32pm.

we'll be living with those GOP appointees for a while.

I blame it all on the Internet

So now it's down to Obama and Romney

(#278458)

Submitted by catchy on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 12:19am.

Can anyone tell me why either one of these guys is running for President?

Obama apparently wanted to be a post-partisan transcendental political figure for the US.

That patently was and is off the table, and he's shown signs of understanding that. He's obviously not running to implement the inauthentic and overly calibrated center-left economic campaign agenda he's pushing. So, what's he doing?

Romney meanwhile doesn't seem to have many identifiable core political beliefs. So, what's his agenda here?

This is going to be the lamest election since 2000 unless one of the parties pulls some outrageous stunts.

Pretty simple, really

(#278461)

Submitted by HankP on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 1:42am.

each one looks at the opposition and thinks "I can't let these guys run the country for the next four years".

I blame it all on the Internet

that makes em sound like patriots

(#278462)

Submitted by catchy on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 1:58am.

Not at all

(#278464)

Submitted by HankP on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 2:25am.

either one, or both, could be completely incorrect. Or hold views that most people would consider insane. You just asked about motivation, I don't think that's puzzling at all.

Now, what they think the problems facing the country are and how they would fix them (or at least address them) is a much tougher question, but it's unlikely that we'll get truthful answers on those questions given the way campaigns are run today.

I blame it all on the Internet

All of this has not happened before!

(#278463)

Submitted by brutusettu on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 2:07am.

I cannot imagine a Browns fan looking at the NFL next year and think; "I cannot allow the Steelers to win the Super Bowl, I'm hoping the Art Modell owned Ravens win it."

Major Kong

Oh brutus

(#278465)

Submitted by HankP on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 2:30am.

like anyone cares what Browns fans think.

I blame it all on the Internet

Health reform lives or dies by this election.

(#278467)

Submitted by Jordan on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 7:46am.

Obama's highly effective foreign policy will be replaced the moment Romney starts putting the Wolfotwits brigade back in charge in the Pentagon. I doubt much will be different about the economy, though Romney will balloon the deficit once again. Your cynicism depends mostly upon glossing over some fairly stark differences.

That said, I'm cynical too, but for a different reason: the Democrats are unlikely to sweep back to a Senate supermajority, which in our world means that even if they hold the Senate and take back the House, we still have "divided government" and very little will get done.

M Aurelius was probably right.

It Depends if Obama Has the Guts to Roll Some Dice...

(#278468)

Submitted by Traveller on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 8:07am.

...I can see reasons for him to be conciliatory and cautious his first term...it is possible he will get a backbone if given a second term.

Or, maybe it is just not in him.

We will see....hope is a thing with feathers.

Best Wishes, Traveller

If the Dems don't win 60 Senate seats, it doesn't much matter.

(#278474)

Submitted by Jordan on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 10:07am.

Obama can be as aggressive or as conciliatory as he wants...no major legislation other than budgets is going to get through so long as Republicans hold on to filibuster power.

I think Obama's strategy for his first term has by and large worked. He's seized the reasonable center, forcing Republicans off into the loony right fringe. He passed epochal health care reform, which while a bit retarded in detail is nonetheless about as much as can be expected in a country as far to the right as this one is - a good start at any rate. His foreign policy has been defined by brilliantly calculated risks with major payoffs...much closer to my idea of "guts" than randomly and recklessly attacking smaller countries. His major failure is failure to effectively address the economy, the plight of homeowners, or meaningfully reform Wall St. Naturally he was stymied on those issues by conservatives and compradores in both parties, and he was working with over-optimistic numbers, but I still feel he could have done more.

M Aurelius was probably right.