The Presidential primaries have certainly been interesting so far. I believe the candidates just finished their 18th debate. Beginning with about 11 candidates, we are now down to four. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are the two front runners at this time, but it has been interesting to see the manner in which each of the candidates may have risen for a time, but then fell. Early on Michelle Bachman won the Iowa Caucus by a land slide, but eventually could not continue with that early momentum. Rick Perry reportedly had lots of money to spend to keep his campaign going, but he just never seemed to be able to catch the tide that would take him where he needed to go.
Ron Paul has recently stated he will remain in the race until the Republican convention. No big surprise, there. We already knew that by the pattern he set in the 2008 Presidential election. If he had any character, with the low ratings he has received he would bow out now and throw his support behind one of the candidates, thereby lessoning the chance of us ending up with one of the more liberal candidates. Paul supporters, though many of them have a liberal, libertarian social agenda, most likely would bring their votes to the more conservative Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich rather than Romney. I believe this because many of Paul's supporters do indeed strongly support the Constitution. Paul, however, is not a true Republican, stating as much on the Sean Hannity show this fall, and demonstrating that fact by throwing his support to the "Constitutional" candidate Charles Baldwin in the last Presidential election. So one can't really predict what the majority of his supporters will do.
Mitt Romney, I would say, is not more liberal than Paul; but he is by far not as conservative as Rick Santorum or even Newt Gingrich. A recent video about Mitt Romney can be seen at the Newsmax website and is in fact pretty darn frightening. There are other reasons why I would really hate to see Romney become the nominee, but the main reaosn would be “Romneycare”. In the last debate, Rick Santorum did a fantastic job of explaining how detrimental a “President Romney” would be in the ability to defeat “Obamacare”.
Without a doubt, I believe Sentator Santorum to be the best candidate. I have watched him for a number of years, and he has been consistently conservative, always standing strong on the difficult, conservative social issues. He is in fact the one that was successful in writing legislation to end partial birth abortion. He has an A+ rating with the National Rifle Association; and he has consistently stood in support of our Middle East ally, Israel - understanding the Biblical mandate as well as foreign policy maneuvers that would be detrimental to the USA, should we not walk that rope carefully. There is no one I agree with more on foreign policy than Rick Santorum, and there is no one that explains the importance of the Middle East Region as well as Senator Santorum.
Dr. Paul’s foreign policy, as Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry both stated in one of the earlier debates is just downright “dangerous". I will get to Dr. Paul in later posts. This man in many regards is extremely dangerous to America.
At this point in the process, we are all anticipating the Florida primary which will be held this Tuesday. Florida is important in some regards because it could flush out another candidate. As I said Romney and Gingrich seem to be leading in the polls and given the Florida constituency, it seems the vote could easily go to Romney. So far, Santorum has won Iowa, Romney has won New Hampshire, and Gingrich took South Carolina. This gives each of the candidates, except Paul, a victory. As more wins take place, theoretically, we will loose some of the candidates – except as I said Paul, who has other motives, I believe.
Sarah Palin recently encouraged Florida voters to cast their votes to Gingrich. This would enable the vetting process, through debates, additional caucuses and primaries, to continue a bit longer. If Newt looses, he will experience pressure to step down. If Romney wins, because of his strength as the longtime front runner, and the amount of money he has at his disposal, we can be certain he is in for the long-haul, unless Gingrich can upset Romney’s momentum with another win. This will also force Santorum to reconsider whether he can stay in the race. It has been reported and he has said himself that he does not have the funds that the other candidates have. I believe, Sarah Palin, knowing the inside skills it takes to maneuver in these campaigns, knew that IN FLORIDA at least, Santorum wouldn't be able to pull off a win, and another victory by Romney would automatically make him the Republican Presidential candidate. I believe Governor Palin is correct. Newt is the only one (in Florida at least) that can pull enough votes to prevent Romney from winning. Governor Palin is thinking strategically; exactly what a politician needs to do to run in our modern day election process. Whether we like it or not, that is fact.
I believe Sarah Palin, and many others (myself included) would be just fine with a win by Newt, or a win by Rick Santorum – these are in fact the two most conservative candidates running. What Palin is trying to prevent in making the statement she did is prevent another win by Romney, thus keeping this vetting process alive for a bit longer. This will give any dirt about Romney more time to surface. So far with his bank account he has done a pretty good job at throwing mud, but he really hasn’t had to endure much himself up to this point.
Newt in actuality is more conservative than the liberal media or Romney would have us believe. He was in fact the voice of conservatives in the 90’s when he was the Speaker of the House. I remember the bashing he took during this time because of his conservative stances; therefore, I have a hard time believing some of the reports we are seeing through the political think tanks like Politico, MSNBC and CNN. Without a doubt, Gingrich brings the most experience, political knowledge, and fantastic debating skills to the primary process.
My candidate, Rick Santorum - my candidate of choice from the onset of the process – brings experience, a Biblical understanding of foreign policy, (yep, I said Biblical) and a conservative voice that springs directly from his heart as a man who not only believes in conservative principals but has lived them. He and Newt have worked together on a number of issues and are in actuality good friends as each has stated repeatedly. My belief is these two are the only ones that understand that at some point the winning candidate and the losers are going to have to unite at the end of the day to enable the Republican Party to enjoy a victory over Obama. Though Newt and Rick may take a jab or two at one another, they have been careful to be respectful of each other. This is the way a primary process should be. Romney – the so-called front runner - and Dr. Paul the one consistently at the bottom, would be wise to take a lesson from the two candidates in the middle.
As a side-note, Senator Santorum, whose platform is Faith, Family and Freedom, has once again shown us that he practices what he preaches when he returned home from campaigning in Florida to be with his three year old daughter Bella who has a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18 Disease.
Bella was recently hospitalized for pneumonia, but through the prayers of family, friends; and, I might add, an entire praying nation, is reportedly doing better at this time. Santorum will return to the race in Flordia today. Senator Santorum is a man who has his priorities right. What a blessing he would be as our next President.
Because each of these three candidates have had a win, no one except Paul - who continues to place with roughly a 10% rating - should be leaving the race at this time. I’m afraid another win for Romney, however, with the money he has to continue his campaign (which includes attack ads against the other candidates) will give him the standing to make him our Republican Presidential nominee.
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