If the GOP candidates were teens on Twitter

From College Humor (an excerpt):

Santorum proves 'Weakness is Strength'

Steve Benen's obituary for the Santorum campaign is worth a read. A key graf:

But in a strange sort of way, I consider the Santorum campaign one of the most impressive things I've seen in presidential politics in quite a while.

Putting aside his ideas, vision, values, policy positions, and agenda, much of which I find abhorrent and offensive, Santorum has done something I honestly didn't think was possible. Just six years ago, he ran for re-election in his home state and lost by 18 points, one of the most humiliating defeats for an incumbent senator in American history. When Santorum launched his presidential bid last year, it was derided as a pointless vanity exercise by, among others, me.

So why did Santorum's campaign catch fire? There are many theories but I think the reason is that Santorum's weakness was his strength. That 18 point defeat meant that Santorum went into the fight dead last and nobody felt much need to pay attention to him in the early stages. Santorum was anti-Romney of last resort, his campaign only caught fire after every other alternative to Romney had been tried and found wanting.

Santorum only ever looked like having any chance of being nominee on the days when Romney said something particularly stupid. At one point it looked as if Santorum might possibly manage to force a brokered convention and allow the party to choose a 'viable' candidate.

Rick Santorum drops out of presidential race

Santorum photo
via Shutterstock

Having finally solved his Google problem (as of today's search Dan Savage's website is no longer the top result for a Rich Santorum Google search), Rick Santorum is reported to have suspended his campaign.

This leaves the Republicans with virtually no option but to elect Mitt Romney the flip-flopping candidate that Republican primary voters have gone out of their way for two presidential cycles to avoid.

Congratulations to the Republican party. You have your candidate.

Santorum remains highly unpopular in his home state of PA

The radical Republican wasn't very popular when voters sent him packing and his numbers are about the same today. What has to be a painful realization for Romney is that as unpopular as Santorum is in his home state, Romney is currently running behind him. That may change between now and voting day but it once again shows how lukewarm the support is among Republicans for Mitt Romney.

He spoke at the state's largest annual gathering of conservatives several weeks ago, yet won a straw vote with less than half the vote. His support in the state also has slipped, according to surveys that highlight his apparent likeability problem.

Santorum is as unpopular now as he was at the time of his defeat. A February poll by Muhlenberg College showed that nearly half the registered voters surveyed viewed him unfavorably. Just 39 percent saw him favorably.

A March 28 poll by Franklin & Marshall College showed Santorum with 30 percent support to Romney's 28 percent among registered Republicans, a significant drop from the 29-point advantage Santorum enjoyed in February.

Bomb explodes outside Wisconsin Planned Parenthood

From TalkingPoints Memo:

A small, homemade bomb exploded outside a Planned Parenthood office in Wisconsin on Sunday night, prompting federal and local investigators to launch a hunt for the person who put it there.

The attack took place at about 7:30 p.m. local time in Wisconsin, causing a small amount of damage to the building in the town of Grand Chute, about 30 miles southwest of Green Bay. No one was injured.

Teri Huyck, President of Planned Parenthood Wisconsin, released a statement saying that the clinic will remain open despite the attack, and the FBI has confirmed that they are joining the investigation.

Rick Santorum also released a statement condemning the attacks, which read in part:

While we can and should work to defund Planned Parenthood and push back against government mandates that force Americans and religious institutions to violate their faith, violence against our fellow citizens has no place in a freedom-loving America.

It should be noted that news of this attack comes just one day before the Wisconsin primary elections.

Santorum says better to re-elect Obama than make Romney president

This is far better, meaning destructive, than Hillary vs. Obama.  From First Read at MSNBC:

Rick Santorum today suggested it would be better to stick with President Obama over a candidate that might be "the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future” -- a shot at chief rival Mitt Romney.

"You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there," said Santorum. "If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future.”

For the second day in a row, the former Pennsylvania senator brought an Etch A Sketch on the trail as a prop to remind voters of Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom's response to a question about whether Santorum is pushing Romney too far right to win over moderate voters in a general election. "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes," Fehrnstrom said Wednesday on CNN. "It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

Puerto Rico really, really doesn't like Rick Santorum

Puerto Rico has proven that it really, really doesn't like Rick Santorum. In fact, they disliked him so much that they gave Mitt Romney an 83% to 8% win over him, even after Rick went to the island to pander to residents and sneak in some rays poolside (no, I won't link to the picture, so you're on your own there).

Santorum's loss comes with good reason. After his double-win in the southern states of Alabama and Mississippi last week (where respectively 45% and 52% of Republican voters also believe that President Obama is a secret Muslim, and in Mississippi a plurality of GOP voters still think inter-racial marriage should be illegal), Santorum left for Puerto Rico to begin campaigning for their weekend race. Except things there got off to an epically-bad start.

I believe the general rule of thumb in politics is to not try to piss off the people whose votes you're trying to gain (but then again I've never run for office, and have publicly clarified my stance on man-on-dog action, so what do I know). Santorum stunned the entire island and the mainland after saying that in order to qualify to join the union, Puerto Rico is constitutionally-required to adopt "English as the main language." Yes, Rickie went to a nation of Spanish-speakers and told them to learn g-damn English.

And Santorum couldn't be more wrong. Not only does Puerto Rico officially recognize English and Spanish as their official languages, but this so-called constitutional requirement does not even exist (I don't expect a non-constitutional scholar like Santorum to get that - that's why we elected Barack Obama, who taught constitutional law). Santorum would probably call this absurd claim a "misspeak." Others might use the word "lie."

Santorum then tried to walk back the comment, but it was too late. In the end, he humiliatingly lost the endorsement of a prominent former senator and the island went to Romney. Romney of course milked Santorum's fail to the dear end, telling Puerto Ricans they could speak whatever they damn well please, y'all.

Rick later managed to top himself (coincidentally an act that would be illegal under a President Santorum) by calling Puerto Rico a "country," even though it's been an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1898. Are history books gay, Rick -- is that why you don't seem to interact with them much?

Sadly, this is the same Republican party that has joked about electrocuting Mexican immigrants and self-deportation (which I hear is about as popular among Latino voters as Republicans self-taxing). Even a Fox News Latino poll showed that Latino voters are picking President Obama over Romney, 70% to 14%. Santorum didn't even manage a showing in the poll, coming in as "Other."

Luckily for Puerto Ricans, Santorum self-deported from the "country" after his defeat, and has rejoined us in "America." I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting for Cinco de Mayo to roll around so Santorum can don a sombrero and tell Mexican-Americans like myself to quit having so many babies (while he tries to make contraception and abortion illegal).  Mitt Romney, on the other hand, typically can't decide whether to brag about his quasi-Mexican heritage or shun it. (I look forward to the day when Santorum starts lecturing Señor Mitt to stop having so many babies.)

And another margarita, por favor.

Stephanopoulos: Santorum may need an actual act of God to force a brokered convention

From ABC's George Stephanopoulos:

But to do it, Santorum would have to basically sweep all the big states left:

Illinois next week. (And even that win might not get him most of the delegates because Santorum’s off the ballot in a few districts.)

Then he needs upsets in Wisconsin and Maryland on April 3rd – plus a sweep of New York and Pennsylvania at the end of the month.

In May, he’d need to win big on the 8th: Indiana, West Virginia and North Carolina – and hope that gives him enough momentum to win three of the five contests on June 5th. One of those wins would have to be either New Jersey or California.

All that would cripple Romney heading to Tampa. Is it likely? Not really, but not impossible either.

Santorum tells Puerto Rico to speak English

Santorum doubles down on bigotry again:

"We need to work together and determine what type of relationship we want to develop," he told the newspaper.

But Santorum said he did not support a state in which English was not the primary language.

"Like any other state, there has to be compliance with this and any other federal law," Santorum said. "And that is that English has to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language such as Hawaii but to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal language."

Jason Links does a good job of pointing out ignorance and incoherency of this outburst (including the fact that there is no law that says you must speak English in order to be admitted as a state) but Santorum is not likely to be the 2012 nominee (2016 is a different matter). Santorum does have the ability to raise campaign topics that the Romney camp would surely wish to keep as silent as possible on. Statehood for Puerto Rico is one of those issues.

Residents of Puerto Rico don't get to vote in the presidential election but Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland do, and the Puerto Rican community in Florida is possibly large enough to tip the election. And even though the issue of Statehood is contentious amongst those living on the island, Puerto Ricans living on the mainland tend to be overwhelmingly in favor of it. Which would of course make supporting Puerto Rican statehood a no-brainer for a candidate, if only the GOP had not spent the past four years fulminating against 'illegals' which their audience (and Latinos) understood was a codeword for 'Latinos'.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I do wish the Republicans would stop using the English language as code for bashing Latinos and other immigrants.  There is a valid argument to be made for every American citizen learning English, without always having to resort to the hysteria and bigotry that pervades the GOP.

Our language unites us as Americans, whether it's written in law or not.  And I'm someone who speaks five languages (including Spanish), so I'm sympathetic to immigrants and to other languages, not to mention the fact that my mom is, and all of my grandparents were, immigrants.  But they threw my mom in first grade, right off the boat from Greece, even though she was old enough to be a third grader, and forced her to learn English.  And she did.  And was double promoted and graduated high school with kids her own age.  So I'm sympathetic to immigrants, can't stand when Republicans use the language issue to cloak their own prejudice, but I also believe that we should all speak a common tongue.  It's too bad the Republicans have pretty much guaranteed that there's no way to have a civil discussion on the topic, since civility was never their intent in the first place.

About last night... the GOP primaries in AL and MS

Santorum won both states last night.

Nate Silver in the NYT on Gingrich's losses

Newt Gingrich's spokesman R.C. Hammond called both Alabama and Mississippi "must wins" for his candidate. Mr. Gingrich lost both states to Rick Santorum, instead.

Was Romney punished by southern voters for being a Mormon? More from Nate, noting that Romney underperformed versus earlier polls:

We mentioned earlier that polls are having a rough night in Mississippi. They projected Mitt Romney to win 34 percent of the vote there and several gave him the lead. But with most of the vote counted, he has 30 percent so far instead and is running in third place. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum is running significantly ahead of his polls.

As Political Wire notes, it wasn't a great night for Romney, who finished third in both states: rospars:

RT @politicalwire: Romney adviser: "I don't think anybody expected Mitt to win AL or MS." Romney yesterday: "We are going to win tomorrow."

Kombiz adds:

RT @kombiz: If an executive came to me and said lemme spend $100M to be 3rd in GOP primaries, I'd say You're Fired. #BusinessMitt

Kombiz adds:

kombiz: Honestly, Kudos to McCain.. In 2008 he actually had to beat serious contenders for the presidency. Romney can't beat fringe candidates

ABC News' exit polls show that voters were skeptical of Romney's conservative credentials, half branded him "not conservative enough." Duh, he's a northeast liberal. Or at least he was. Now it's not clear if he was even honest about being a liberal.

More concern about Romney's double 3rd place finish from Politico:

Rick Santorum delivered another sharp shock to Mitt Romney’s campaign Tuesday night, claiming victory in the Alabama and Mississippi presidential primaries and reinforcing — yet again — conservative hesitations about the GOP front-runner.

Gingrich says Romney is "not much of a frontrunner."

But before everyone gets giddy over how well Rick Santorum is doing, keep in mind that Americans are more than capable of electing the man president. (Would you really put it past them? These are the people who re-elected George Bush.) So be careful what, or who, you wish for.