Rick Santorum considering another presidential run...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/...ning-president-again-215701762--election.html

Damn. Thought we'd heard the last from this idiot. If he ends up as frontrunner in 2016 then I guess the Republicans can kiss another election goodbye.

Wrong. He would win. He is good.

I'd say after two in a row, every Republican nominee from either should be put out to pasture. In my opinion, the only good chance conservatism has in this country involves breaking the two-party system and forcing the Democratic and Republican parties to re-earn the prominence they currently enjoy only by using huge amounts of money and political currency to lock other parties' contenders out of the running.

For the Republicans, re-earning prominence would mean divesting their party and their platform of religious kookery. Difficulty factor there: the majority of the Right, like the majority of the Left, can't untangle "religious" from "Right," which means that even those who are on the Right and irreligious exhibit signs of feeling obligated to humor the kooks, despite the fact that it makes conservatism as a whole unpalatable.

You are not even trying anymore, are you?

Trying what?

Bleh. The Republicans will have to really shake things up and nominate someone substantially different from all these interchangeable run-of-the-mill candidates if they want to win the next presidency, and not in the direction of the 'Mexicans/women/gays must be contained' platform. At this rate I doubt the general public will really be tired of Democrats by the end of Obama's term, especially if the occasional right-wing loon keeps spouting off about magical rape pregnancy prevention or how the Earth is a few thousand years old or birth certificates and such.

I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment, champ.

Well, you've got one of two conclusions you won't like staring you in the face. Either he's not good and that's why he lost in this last go-round, or he was good and being good doesn't mean a guy wins.

Personally, I'd go with both, but you've set yourself up for a one-or-the-other kind of letdown here.

Santorum could maybe win the nomination. There's very little chance he'd be elected President, though.

Well...depends who the Dems run.

We've had a two term rockstar president, and, history shows, right on the heels of that, they always inexplicably go for a total fuckin' nincompoop.

So, I'm thinking the Dems will dig up another Dukakis, the Repubs will run Santorum, and we'll all want to shoot ourselves.

If the Dems knew that Santorum would be the Republican nominee then, despite his age, Barney Frank would be an interesting nominee. Frank would be a pretty good President, he'd easily trounce Santorum as would any Democrat, symbolically it would be a great thing, and the entertainment value of the debates would be untoppable. There are other Democrats who would be better Presidents, but none who would do as good a job of turning Santorum into a quivering crying mess on live television.

The only thing I remember about Santorum is that he was pretty unmemorable. Romney was the Mormon guy, Bachmann was the wild-eyed crazy cat lady sans cats, Herman Cain was the conservative, Paul was the Libertarian, but Santorum... drawing a blank.

The religious nut who wore sleeveless sweaters.

The Republicans are going to have a problem even if they shed the religious wing. The economy is most likely going to be in very sound shape by then, and right or wrong, people will give credit to Obama for that, which means the Republican won't be able to run on economic issues. That didn't even work this time, it certainly won't work in '16.

To be honest, I think they are stuck in a shrinking box, and the only way out won't necessarily lead to quick results in the voting booth.

The Dems are going to be facing a problem of their own in 2016. Biden is a weak candidate, but will be at the forefront of the party by that time. Party machinery being what it is, they might end up with him despite lukewarm enthusiasm among the base.

Santorum could very well beat Biden.

I didn't. There was never a doubt in my mind that he would take his unexpected surge this time as evidence that the next one was his. particularly as the GOP has something of a habit of giving the previous year's runner up the top spot in the next cycle if that person runs again.

if the Dems nominated someone even reasonably inoffensive - basically anyone more acceptable than Al Sharpton - Santorum would lose big time. The trend in this country is strongly away from his sort of politics.

He's a caricature of all that's offensive to swing voters about the GOP

Better suggestion for the same task?

Tammy Baldwin.

Biden won't get the nomination. There may well be some backroom thuggery to see he doesnt run but if he does he will be shunned.

He's a born loser who stands no chance in hell of winning national office. I completely support him being the nominee and not just because he'd lose to a stale slice of bread. The hard right loves to claim that a really, really, REALLY conservative candidate hasn't been tried yet and if ONLY did that then, miraculously, Republicans would start winning nation wide elections; if only they became MORE extreme and moved FURTHER away from the majority of voters then they would start winning. This is, of course, delusional to the extreme as you need to get the majority of the voters on your side to win and there are no votes to be made by going further to the right. Yet these fools will maintain their delusions until proven wrong so I want to see them get what they want and to see it all blow up in their faces.

That way even the most delusional right wing nut job can't lie to himself and say "going further to the right would have made us win".

That's a fair suggestion. I personally prefer Frank, but Baldwin would make a fine President as far as I can tell and I won't criticize anyone for preferring her to Frank. Still, I don't think she'd be nearly as entertaining as Frank would be in a debate with Santorum.

Emphasis on that last part is why I said "an interesting nominee" rather than "the best nominee."

The GOP should take a page from The Three Amigos and have everyone wear sweater vests in 2016.

Even Chris Christie?

Yeah, what the Republicans need is to run a flaming anti-science, anti-gay bigot.

The more negative coattails on the Republican candidate, the merrier. I figure a Santorum candidacy would mean the Republicans lose several Senate seats and the House by a fair margin.

You guys shared a gerbil once, didn't you?

Actually, yeah. For the health of the two parties we are stuck with, it's not a bad idea for the GOP to get an object lesson in just how badly following that claim will fail them. Assuming the Dems do not at the same time nominate an utterly insane candidate, it would be worth a considerable price in terms of future races for someone to drive the last nail in the coffin of that delusion.

Well, just on sheer entertainment value, if it were possible to run a gay version of Al Franken you might actually see Santorum's head explode on live television.

The point is that Santorum's negative coattails would cost Republicans several seats in blue and purple states--he could, for example, easily cost the Republicans four or five seats in New York--and would actually break some of the gerrymanders. Santorum's that bad a potential candidate.