Rush blasts Ridge; Suggests Santorum

[Keystone Phil]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/rush-puts-kibos.html






Fire away, folks. 

[Sbane]

Yes please please pick Santorum. Then in case Mccain wins we get the chance to make santorum jokes for 4 years.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

In the name of all that is good with the world, pick Rick!

[12th Doctor]

Rush was a major political force back a decade ago, and I credit him for his part in having revived the Republican Party... he is just a shell of that now, though.  He has become almost totally irrelevant.

[Brittain33]

It's very unlikely for reasons beyond Santorum's political radioactivity... see this article, http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDllYTY5NzA2OTk2YzNhZTIyZGUwYzU5OTc4MzVhZDY= from Kathryn-Jean Lopez from January.

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[WalterMitty]

if one 2006 loser should be considered for veep it is bob ehrlich.

[Keystone Phil]

Yes, Santorum was a McCain critic. So was Romney.

[12th Doctor]

Yes, Santorum was a McCain critic. So was Romney.

Yes, but Romney never so graciously repaid McCain for his help.

[ChrisFromNJ]

Who gives a flying **** what that Oxycotin addict thinks?

[12th Doctor]

I mean, if Santorum was planning on spitting on McCain in front of the whole country, he should have done it two years ago while McCain was campaigning to save his ass here in PA.

[Flying Dog]

No. Santorum is too good for McCain.

[Keystone Phil]

Yes, Santorum was a McCain critic. So was Romney.

Yes, but Romney never so graciously repaid McCain for his help.

Oh, ok, we get it. I think Romney hurt McCain a lot more (and sometimes personally) than Rick did with his few comments.

I mean, if Santorum was planning on spitting on McCain in front of the whole country, he should have done it two years ago while McCain was campaigning to save his ass here in PA.

Get over it. Seriously. If the guy was seriously selected, do you really think it would be his goal to trash McCain?

[12th Doctor]

Yes, Santorum was a McCain critic. So was Romney.

Yes, but Romney never so graciously repaid McCain for his help.

Oh, ok, we get it. I think Romney hurt McCain a lot more (and sometimes personally) than Rick did with his few comments.

I mean, if Santorum was planning on spitting on McCain in front of the whole country, he should have done it two years ago while McCain was campaigning to save his ass here in PA.

Get over it. Seriously. If the guy was seriously selected, do you really think it would be his goal to trash McCain?

What exactly does Rick Santorum bring to the ticket?  Even if he hadn't been running against Bob Casey in 06 it would have been a tough fight, and now, after losing by almost 20 points, I think its safe to say that Santorum is damaged goods.

[12th Doctor]

Why are you even bothering to bring up Romney?  Everyone is missing the real story here which is that Rush feels compelled to urge McCain not to pick Ridge... which means that McCain is probably planning on picking Ridge.

[Keystone Phil]

What exactly does Rick Santorum bring to the ticket?  Even if he hadn't been running against Bob Casey in 06 it would have been a tough fight, and now, after losing by almost 20 points, I think its safe to say that Santorum is damaged goods.

Appeals to the base like no other possible running mate and he's a young guy.

I'm not suggesting that Santorum is a good pick. In fact, he goes against what I believe: McCain should play it safe and pick someone without controversy. We even discussed that that's Santorum's belief, too!

However, I won't deny that the guy has appeal.

[Mr. Morden]

For the record, Limbaugh was largely supportive of then-pro-choice Steve Forbes's presidential campaign back in 1996:

link

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[12th Doctor]

What exactly does Rick Santorum bring to the ticket?  Even if he hadn't been running against Bob Casey in 06 it would have been a tough fight, and now, after losing by almost 20 points, I think its safe to say that Santorum is damaged goods.

Appeals to the base like no other possible running mate and he's a young guy.

I'm not suggesting that Santorum is a good pick. In fact, he goes against what I believe: McCain should play it safe and pick someone without controversy. We even discussed that that's Santorum's belief, too!

However, I won't deny that the guy has appeal.

I would say that his appeal to people who want to rip us apart is alot stronger than his appeal to the base.  It will be wall-to-wall attack ads.

[Keystone Phil]

What exactly does Rick Santorum bring to the ticket?  Even if he hadn't been running against Bob Casey in 06 it would have been a tough fight, and now, after losing by almost 20 points, I think its safe to say that Santorum is damaged goods.

Appeals to the base like no other possible running mate and he's a young guy.

I'm not suggesting that Santorum is a good pick. In fact, he goes against what I believe: McCain should play it safe and pick someone without controversy. We even discussed that that's Santorum's belief, too!

However, I won't deny that the guy has appeal.

I would say that his appeal to people who want to rip us apart is alot stronger than his appeal to the base.  It will be wall-to-wall attack ads.

Fair enough but I'd rather a running mate that satisfies the base over someone that pisses off the base. Swing voters really aren't deciding based on the running mates so these attack ads wouldn't be too hurtful.

[12th Doctor]

What exactly does Rick Santorum bring to the ticket?  Even if he hadn't been running against Bob Casey in 06 it would have been a tough fight, and now, after losing by almost 20 points, I think its safe to say that Santorum is damaged goods.

Appeals to the base like no other possible running mate and he's a young guy.

I'm not suggesting that Santorum is a good pick. In fact, he goes against what I believe: McCain should play it safe and pick someone without controversy. We even discussed that that's Santorum's belief, too!

However, I won't deny that the guy has appeal.

I would say that his appeal to people who want to rip us apart is alot stronger than his appeal to the base.  It will be wall-to-wall attack ads.

Fair enough but I'd rather a running mate that satisfies the base over someone that pisses off the base. Swing voters really aren't deciding based on the running mates so these attack ads wouldn't be too hurtful.

Phil, you know I like Rick, but Brittain is right, Rick is radioactive.

He violates the two general principles of a running-mate:

1) Do no harm.

2) Carry your home state.

[Keystone Phil]

Phil, you know I like Rick, but Brittain is right, Rick is radioactive.

He violates the two general principles of a running-mate:

1) Do no harm.

2) Carry your home state.

Carry your home state really isn't the best benchmark for a running mate especially this year. I can agree with "do no harm" but there is no such thing as a perfect running mate.

[MODU]

Rush is a scab.

[12th Doctor]

Phil, you know I like Rick, but Brittain is right, Rick is radioactive.

He violates the two general principles of a running-mate:

1) Do no harm.

2) Carry your home state.

Carry your home state really isn't the best benchmark for a running mate especially this year. I can agree with "do no harm" but there is no such thing as a perfect running mate.

No, but there are grades of imperfection, I would say that Santorum sits to low on the chart to be worth the risk.

[12th Doctor]

If I thought that there was an positive to picking Santorum that out-shined the negatives then I would be all for it.

As it stands, I think Ridge would be a solid pick.

[Keystone Phil]

Phil, you know I like Rick, but Brittain is right, Rick is radioactive.

He violates the two general principles of a running-mate:

1) Do no harm.

2) Carry your home state.

Carry your home state really isn't the best benchmark for a running mate especially this year. I can agree with "do no harm" but there is no such thing as a perfect running mate.

No, but there are grades of imperfection, I would say that Santorum sits to low on the chart to be worth the risk.

Fair enough. I just don't think he's the disaster everyone makes him out to be. If it was McCain-Santorum and they lost, I strongly doubt that Santorum would be the main reason why they lost.

[Brittain33]

Oh, ok, we get it. I think Romney hurt McCain a lot more (and sometimes personally) than Rick did with his few comments.

The difference is, Romney was running against McCain at the time. Then he made up. If people ran ads showing Romney's past criticism of McCain, it wouldn't resonate so much because they've already addressed the issue and people know that former rivals will join forces in situations like this.

With Santorum, all you have here are scripts for devastating ads that undermine the ticket. Too, he's probably angered McCain with his comments back then, and since he doesn't have a huge pack of donors pushing for him to be the VP nominee like Romney does, he's got too many strikes against him and nothing in his favor except for fond memories of his heyday as conservatism's bad boy in the Senate.