Santorum publishes Extremist Views in his New Book

[Keystone Phil]

Why are they so affraid of this guy?

They know if he gets re-elected he's very likely to run for President. While they insist that they'd smash him into the ground, I think they're afraid that he could win.

I knew people would bring this up and stretch what he was saying. Like stay at home moms, for example. I know people are going to say that he hates women in the workforce and believes every woman with children should be locked up in the house. He's not saying that at all but the Santorum haters are out in full force exagerrating what he said.

Let me say this: I hope people like Scoonie come down to PA, volunteer for Casey, go to the debates and bring up all of these points to Santorum so when he responds he'll clearly explain what he means and make everyone who tried to make him look like an extremist look extremely foolish.

[Keystone Phil]

Let me say this: I hope people like Scoonie come down to PA, volunteer for Casey, go to the debates and bring up all of these points to Santorum so when he responds he'll clearly explain what he means and make everyone who tried to make him look like an extremist look extremely foolish.

Some of us have jobs, you know. I can't afford to quit my job to go campaign for Casey.

Such a pity. Your excellent skills that would help re-elect Santorum will be missed.

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He never said women shouldn't be in the workforce. Keep stretching, advice your PA friends to do the same and watch Santorum win.

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This should be used in a MoveOn.org ad against Santorum. I think he'd be able to crack 55% after that one.

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Just like his gay comments were going to bring him down. Just like comments he made in 2000 were going to destroy him. You people are delusional. The main thing that hurts Santorum in 2006 is that he'd running against a Casey.

[Keystone Phil]

I don't see the big deal.  Everyone has a right to their own opinion.  Don't like it?  Don't read it.

True, but the voters of Pennsylvania have the right to know his true feelings.  Therefore, the extremist views in his book should be exposed for voters to judge.

They know his views. They like the man. Face reality, Scoonie.

[Keystone Phil]

They know his views. They like the man. Face reality, Scoonie.

They do?  Two questions...

Mr. Santorum's most recent approval rating?

Quinnipiac - He was at 48%. Disapprovals in the 30s, I believe. He's usually in the mid 50s.

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That's my point. They like Santorum but Casey is a Casey. Casey is more popular. That doesn't mean that people don't approve of Santorum.

[Keystone Phil]

They know his views.

I highly doubt they know the extent of his extremism.

Let the Casey campaign make Santorum the issue of this campaign. Let them go negative. If they like the MoveOn folks run the show, Santorum wins the race.

[Keystone Phil]

For anyone that is wondering...

From http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11379.xml?ReleaseID=676

TREND: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Rick Santorum is handling his job as United States Senator?

 
                                App     Dis     DK/NA

Apr 20, 2005            48      35      18
Feb 16, 2005            52      31      17
Sep 16, 2004            54      30      16
Aug 18, 2004            52      30      18
Jul 14, 2004              53      28      19


Approval ratings look good. He's only dipped into the 40s twice within the past three years of polling in the Quinnipiac polls. Disapproval in the 30s is a good sign.
 

[Keystone Phil]

How is Moveon any different from right-wing groups like Progress for America, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Americans for Tax Reform, and countless others?

Pennsylvanians are more open to conservative groups than liberal groups. I don't know if you realized this, Scoonie, but this isn't a race for the U.S. Senate in New York. This is Pennsylvania.

[Keystone Phil]

Let the Casey campaign make Santorum the issue of this campaign. Let them go negative. If they like the MoveOn folks run the show, Santorum wins the race.

Speaking of MoveOn.org.  They offically announced that they will back Casey over Pennachio in the Democratic primary.  Im not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.  Could help w/ liberal turnout in the GE.  But at the same time it could hurt with Swing voters and moderate Republicans.

I don't know how much it will matter in the primary but if you have MoveOn people knocking on doors for Casey in the Fall, that will hurt. There are RINOs in the SE that do not like Santorum yet Casey is not their favorite guy either (because of his conservativism) and MoveOn is too extreme.

Classic example: bullmoose. He doesn't like Santorum yet isn't a fan of Casey. He's an undecided voter. I am willing to bet that a MoveOn volunteer asking him to vote for Casey would only move him towards supporting Santorum.

[Keystone Phil]

Phil, I do have a strong feeling at leat one of his kids will be messed up when they get older.

It's ashame if that happens. Atleast you'll have company.

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We admire him and believe in what he believes in. I'm not apologizing. I'm defending. I'm apologize for not joining the ranks of the other idiots who say Santorum is an extremist moron. I know it hurts you that I'm not a member of that club.

Game over? He lost? I'm looking at my calendar right now and it says July 2005. I thought the election was in November 2006. I might be mistaken...

Scoonie, we go by Quinnipiac. When the new numbers come out, we can argue over them at that time. SurveyUSA does a poll on Senators once every six months of so. I'm not going to drop Quinnipiac (one of the most accurate polling institutes in the area) for one SurveyUSA poll.

Flyers, please get rid of Casey. I beg you. If you do that, you might just get invited to Santorum's re-election party. He'd beat Hoeffel or Hafer by about six points.

Your silly logic of fundraising over someone who has the better chance at winning always gets me, Flyers. I thought Howard Dean would make the best DNC chair for the GOP. Ha! You'd be a whole lot better.

[Keystone Phil]

He'd beat Hoeffel or Hafer by about six points.

At least. Even though im a huge Hoeffel supporter, if he cant get within 10 points of Specter, he cant anywhere close to Santorum.

He'd do better against Santorum than he did against Specter.

Santorum - 52%
Hoeffel/Hafer - 46%
Other - 2%

Basically, it would be another Santorum vs. Klink result.

[Keystone Phil]

I seriously doubt this will even become a semi-major campaign issue.

In 2000, Ron Klink brought up some comments that Santorum made about how he raises his children. Santorum pretty much set the story straight and Klink kept whining about it, trying making Santorum out to be a racist. Now everyone says Klink was incredibly weak but he wasn't all that weak with debating. Casey is. If anyone thinks Casey is going to be one to make this an issue during a debate, for example, you're kidding yourself.

[Keystone Phil]

They just finished up debating this on Inside Politics' Strategy Session.

The main part of the debate (atleast the part that I saw) focused on Santorum's mom comments. The stretching continued and the Republican (I believe her name was Victoria Clark) didn't say a thing.

An excerpt was read about working mothers and Begala made a point about how Santorum believe working mothers are inferior to stay at home mothers. The problem: Santorum never said that and I highly doubt that he would believe that.

I think what he is trying to get at is that a good amount of women have gotten so wrapped up in their career that their time for their family has been greatly scaled back. That's obviously a problem. Again, I don't think he's going against the idea of a working mother, in general. I think he's going after the problems that have come about in the case of some working mothers.

Victoria Clark then went on to say that at the end of the day this will be a "political wash." That it won't matter. For Santorum, this might sting his campaign in areas like Montgomery and Bucks counties. However, in more traditional, culturally conservative areas out west and in central PA, this won't be a problem.

[Keystone Phil]

But I'm sure a lot of people would jump to conclusions and call him sexist and anti-working mothers.

If Casey starts ads like that in the SE and it becomes an issue, it will only help Santorum overall. People in this state aren't Santorum haters.

[Keystone Phil]

But I'm sure a lot of people would jump to conclusions and call him sexist and anti-working mothers.

If Casey starts ads like that in the SE and it becomes an issue, it will only help Santorum overall. People in this state aren't Santorum haters.

He isn't that well liked.  You have your head wrapped in older polls when their are newer ones out.  Yes I know its not "Quinnipiac" please..

He isn't that well liked? Are you just ignoring the pattern concerning his popularity? What new polls are out besides the SurveryUSA poll? If Santorum is up in the next Quinnipiac poll, will you back down in your argument that he's not well liked?

[Keystone Phil]

.  Anyway right now we have  2 polls which are MORE RECENT than the poll you cite.  I tend to go by the most recent polls & when a bunch of polls come out within a short period of time take the average of the polls.  You for some reason seem to be so wrapped up in this 2 and a half month old Quinnipiac poll, when we have newer polls that are out that show a different result than the old poll you ignore them, I wonder why.....

Two more recent polls? Where? The only one that was noted was the one SurveryUSA poll.

I am "so wrapped up" in the Quinnipiac polls because they are the most accurate polls in the area. There's a reason why almost everyone in PA politics follows Quinnipiac, Smash.

And, once again, you have only presented ONE other poll and the results are as drastically different as you think!

[Keystone Phil]

.  Anyway right now we have  2 polls which are MORE RECENT than the poll you cite.  I tend to go by the most recent polls & when a bunch of polls come out within a short period of time take the average of the polls.  You for some reason seem to be so wrapped up in this 2 and a half month old Quinnipiac poll, when we have newer polls that are out that show a different result than the old poll you ignore them, I wonder why.....

Two more recent polls? Where? The only one that was noted was the one SurveryUSA poll.

I am "so wrapped up" in the Quinnipiac polls because they are the most accurate polls in the area. There's a reason why almost everyone in PA politics follows Quinnipiac, Smash.

And, once again, you have only presented ONE other poll and the results are as drastically different as you think!

Survey USA did TWO seperate Polls

One in May, one in June.  His approval in May was 44% with a 38% disapproval, it June it was 45% approval 44% disapproval.  He had the 7th lowest approval rating in May & 10th highest disapproval in May, in June he had the 8th lowest approval & the highest disapproval

Links, please.

[Keystone Phil]

but maybe you chose to ignore it because others mentioned how bad it was for Santorum.

http://www.surveyusa.com/100USSenatorApprovalRatings061305.htm

Why would I ask for the links if I am choosing to ignore this? I remember one poll and not the other.

Another question: Why are you so dumb? (That is a serious question, too.)

[Keystone Phil]

Interesting stuff.

According to SurveyUSA...

Santorum's approval amongst women is higher than his approval amongst men.

24% of Republicans disapprove of him. Better yet, 26% of conservatives disapprove of him.

Southeastern PA has a 46% disapproval of Santorum but 40% approve. I think a six point difference is too good to be true for Santorum here.

Best part! The T, PA's most conservative area, gave Santorum a 49% approval rating while 42% disapproved!

I'm hesitant towards believing this poll.

[Keystone Phil]

Meant that you were ignoring it before, when the news first broke about his approval dropping in mid June.  Both Survey USA polls were on the same page, the same links all along.  So if you looked at the links when the story first came out you would have seen both polls since this was the link that was posted in multipile threads on Santorum

I never noticed the May poll. I've seen the details on the June poll before (see my recent comments on how much of a joke it was). If I was to ignore a poll, why would I ignore the poll that showed my candidate doing better?

[Keystone Phil]

They know his views.

I highly doubt they know the extent of his extremism.

Let the Casey campaign make Santorum the issue of this campaign. Let them go negative. If they like the MoveOn folks run the show, Santorum wins the race.

Casey does not have the poltical expirience, nor the convienence, of not allowing himself to be rolled over by the Moveon's and Howard Dean.  You watch.  When this campaign is over, you won't be able to tell the difference from Casey and Kennedy.

I know there is a good chance that Dean and MoveOn will "move on" in to the state and take over. That's a bright area for the Santorum campaign.

[Keystone Phil]

I hope so, MoveOn did a pretty good job at delivering PA to Kerry.

Comparing how PA voted in the national election and how it votes in other races is like comparing apples and oranges. Pennsylvanians would easily overlook what MoveOn has to say with Presidential stuff but when it hits closer to home, it'll be a different story.

[Keystone Phil]

  Moveon could help bring out the Casey vote in SE PA

Not with some moderate Republicans. Look at my bullmoose example.

[Keystone Phil]

I seriously doubt this will even become a semi-major campaign issue.

In 2000, Ron Klink brought up some comments that Santorum made about how he raises his children. Santorum pretty much set the story straight and Klink kept whining about it, trying making Santorum out to be a racist. Now everyone says Klink was incredibly weak but he wasn't all that weak with debating. Casey is. If anyone thinks Casey is going to be one to make this an issue during a debate, for example, you're kidding yourself.

Casey is really stuck between a rock and a hrad place.  If he is going to be "like dad", which is pretty his ticket to victory, he needs to stick to a conservative tone on social issues and cannot attack Santorum for his stances.  However, the groups like Moveon.org and the Deaniacs are going to presure Casey to be like them, if he wants thier help and they are going to target the Hell out of this seat, because of their strong hatred of Santorum.  This is why I am honestly not worried, regardless of what the polls say.  The situation on election day will look nothing like this.  As I said before, by the end, either Casey will lose most of the left wing support, or he will be unrecongnizable from Dean.

I can understand that point and I can see it happening if Casey allows MoveOn and Dean a lot of influence.

Remember what Jimmy Carter said. "We Democrats can beat ourselves."

They might just do that.

[Keystone Phil]

Casey would do well to move to the left on social issues.  You have to remember he is carrying a name, nothing more.  With this leftward movement he will have access to oodles of cash, not have to worry about the peripheral Southeastern PA counties, and hold chunks of central and Northeastern PA intact with the name rec alone.  Now he doesn't have to be Pennacchio, but a leftward movement would benefit him.

If his drift to the left is so obvious, Santorum can hit him on it and those Casey Dems might stick with Rick.