Slashdot Mirror
Santorum Defends Robocalls To Democrats
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Rick Santorum defended his robocalls urging Democrats in Michigan to vote in today's critical primary, a tactic that has come under withering criticism from rival Mitt Romney as a 'terrible dirty trick' and a 'new low for his campaign.' Santorum says he reached out to Democratic voters, who can vote in the primary, to show that 'we can attract voters we need to win states like Michigan,' and noted that the former Massachusetts governor has wooed Democrats in the past and used Santorum's own words endorsing him in the 2008 race on a robocall of his own. 'I didn't complain about it. I don't complain. You know what, I'm a big guy. I can take it.' Romney crossed party lines himself to vote for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic primary over Bill Clinton in order to cause mischief for the general election. 'In Massachusetts, if you register as an independent, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary,' said Romney, who until he made an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1994 had spent his adult life as a registered independent."
Personally I think they should do away with "special rights" of parties, etc.
There is nothing in our constitution that creates- or gives special rights to political parties. There is nothing about our brand of democracy that benefits from having parties. George Washington actually called them a bad idea and thought the US should stay away from them.
The government by including party affiliation on ballots- and helping organise- and give public spaces to primaries are interfering with fair elections- it gives an unfair advantage to the two largest parties and does not give a level playing field.
Being a two-party system the majority of the population are pressured into voting for one of two ideologies. "an independant or a third-party can't win" is a common belief... certainly it is made harder by states allowing people to vote "straight-party ticket". This makes it harder for independants or third parties to be elected.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Thats what makes it a crazy story. Oldest trick in the book that "the other side" always votes for the most unelectable guy to make certain they can win against him. You have to be a total political noob to try this stunt of asking for D votes before the nomination, whoever the D vote for is who they think O will be able to easily beat. Which everyone knows is Santorum anyway. Thats why everyone who pays attention to this thought the Santorum (the guy, not the bodily fluid) robocalls were a "dirty trick" by Romney's guys to make Santorum look bad (well, he does a pretty good job all by himself, I mean help him look worse). Then Santorum is dumb enough to admit to doing the robocalls himself. That dude is doomed to never get the nomination after this little scuffle. If he wasn't a complete idiot he'd blame Romney for the robocalls to democrats in support of himself. Indications of a martyr complex?
1. Find something that no one likes, like cross burning or robo calls.
2. Spend money to frame competition for doing it.
3. Profit! Or at least donations to you instead of competition, unless your stupid enough to admit you did it.
I will say that the only thing worse that this would be getting caught and outed by your opponent. The only intelligent explanation is Santorum tried to frame Romney by paying for robo calls to democrats in support of himself, but Romney caught him and got the goods on him, "and for the greater good of the R party" the chiefs (big donors, etc) convinced Santorum to fall on his sword instead of getting totally destroyed by Romney outing him. Santorum will probably get a minor position in "reward" for falling on his sword. Not too high up, getting caught being a crook is rough on the reputation...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
As a democrat I cast my vote for Ron Paul. I know he doesn't stand much of chance but I am hopeful!
Thanks. I have many democrat-leaning friends who did the same thing.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
This is just part of the Republican Party's unconscious effort to self-destruct.
I'm not sure it's unconscious. I think they may be running a longer game. When McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, I couldn't help wondering if he was deliberately throwing the 2008 election to Obama. Perhaps he saw the biggest economic shitstorm since the Depression approaching, and knew that it would be blamed on whoever was in office.
If the GOP actually nominates Santorum, this will no longer be an unlikely-sounding conspiracy theory, but an irrefutable fact. It will mean that the Republicans are absolutely terrified of something that they're reasonably certain will happen in the next four years, and that they don't want anyone from their party in the Oval Office when it does.
I'm not going to vote for Obama again, either way, but I'm glad I'm not in his shoes.
No matter who is in the White House, there's a very good chance WWIII will be started on his watch. There's not one plausible candidate, D or R who doesn't have warmongering with Iran as a major part of their foreign policy platform.
If anything, Obama is a bigger threat to world peace than Santorum. The cult of personality behind him has made most voters oblivious to the fact that he has doubled down on all the worst offenses of the Bush administration. Obama could ask for any power whatsoever, and the so-called "moderates" would hand it over to him just because he's "not Bush".
I'd be extremely surprised if we didn't see an Obama reelection shortly followed by a propaganda blitz extremely similar to what we saw in the lead up to Iraq. And he'll get away with it, because people are more concerned about their team winning, than not being hypocrits.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If that strategy backfires it would be illegal to pray to Cthulhu before the year is out.
Pope Santorum of the newly established Church of America would outlaw all false gods- and any believe other than anything identical to what he believes.
The scary thing is- under Santorums view of the government- the current foremost official on American religion is Obama. Think about it- if there is no seperation of church and state- Obama is currently the head executive official for American religion- technically the prez doesn't write laws- but he gets to sign laws based on his own personal religious view.
What do people think of that?
The people who should be most afraid of the wearing down on seperation of church and state should be the religious.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
But then if you buy into Santorums position that education is for snobs and if your not rabidly pro Christian your anti religion robo calls may work on you.
The problem is that there are a -lot- of people out there that buy into Santorum's "message", manufactured by a sociopath, consumed by idiots.
George Carlin's Theory of General Stupidity:
Think of how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.
applies very well here.