The symbol of a wacko core that wants to impose their wacko views on the country
The Republicans have a
problem.
“The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. ‘We’d get killed,’ the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win the state in which he grew up. ‘He’d be too damaged’ … Santorum? ‘He’d lose 35 states,’ the senator said, predicting the same fate for Newt Gingrich. It would have to be somebody else, the senator said. Who? ‘Jeb Bush.’”
No, it's not that Rick Santorum might beat Mitt Romney in the primary and get clobbered in the general election, or that Romney might lose Michigan in the primary, get nominated and then get clobbered in the general election (both are plausible but less likely than Romney winning Michigan, then the primary, and then losing in the fall). The Republican problem, which the media has to dance around in order to sell their product, is the Republican primary voter.
Republican primary voters are the ones pushing Romney, Huntsman, Pawlenty, et. al. into acting like lunatics chasing after positions they don't believe in. They're the ones that elevated Donald Trump and Herman Cain to serious contenders and made Sarah Palin a household name. And they're the ones that would have to buy into a Jeb Bush or a Mitch Daniels or a Chris Christie as a viable substitute foisted on them by a well heeled Republican elite in a smoke filled back room, undoubtedly well upholstered and well stocked with people who think they know better than the poor schlubs who actually caucus and vote from January through June.
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Who was the astute observer who said "Scratch the surface of the Republicans and they're all Rick Santorum"? Their views are Santorum's views, against contraception, against prenatal testing and for taking Big Government out the board room and into your bedroom. They're the ones in Virginia who want forced transvaginal ultrasounds (laws don't pass themselves, Republicans have to vote for them). They're the ones behind the ill-fated Susan G. Komen for the Cure decision to sever ties with Planned Parenthood. They're the ones that want to gin up outrage against Obama's sensible decision to apply federal law to everyone regarding access to contraception while working to accommodate sensibilities, just the way 28 states already successfully do.
It isn't just the bedroom that they want to regulate. For an anti-government party, they sure are keen on regulating union activity in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. That's not Santorum's doing, it's the will of the people voting for Santorum.
The sad truth is that the Republican base, the ones who bought in to the birther nonsense, the ones who believe all this Kenyan Socialist talk, are way outside the mainstream of general election viability, but are desperately seeking a candidate who not only reflects their views, but is willing to publicly say so.
And that discussion of the crazy, that ripping off of the polite focus group-honed talk and saying what they really think, is what they get with Santorum, and what they got with Cain, Trump, and before them, Sarah Palin. This entire primary, in fact, has been all about the base saying what they finally want to say, and hearing what they finally want to hear.
That's not going to go away, and the problem for Republicans is that it's all on the table now, in the tabloids and on television, instead of being behind closed doors where it's been before. They can thank their wacko primary candidates for that, including Rick Santorum, only too eager to play culture warrior and pick up the Terri Schiavo debate where it left off.
None of it is going to help Mitt Romney when he's the nominee. The problem for him and for every other GOP candidate this year is that the Republican primary voter has finally been exposed ... and it isn't very pretty.