Presidential Race Pits Government Against Business

An Obama campaign video shows the president’s national political director, Katherine Archuleta, tearfully crediting Mr. Obama with having saved her daughter’s life. She portrays the president as a hero of government whose health care law assures her daughter, a cancer survivor, insurance coverage forever.

A video by a political committee backing Mr. Romney follows a nearly identical tack: evocative music and a tearful description of Mr. Romney as “the man who helped save my daughter.” But the testimonial, from a former partner at Bain Capital, depicts Mr. Romney as a hero of business who once shut down his firm to aid search efforts until the partner’s missing teenager was found.

Those competing stories are rooted in more than the biographies of the Democratic incumbent, a former professor and community organizer, and his Republican challenger, a onetime financial industry titan. They also reflect the divergent ideologies and core constituencies of the two parties.

Mr. Obama champions government as a linchpin of future economic growth and the average American’s protector from the excesses and failures of the free market.

Mr. Romney condemns government as a menace whose excesses and failures imperil the free market’s ability to enhance individual opportunity and make the nation prosperous.

Each has more negative than positive material to work with. Their back-and-forth is a clash between institutions reduced to equal levels of public disdain after years of economic weakness, Wall Street’s collapse and bailout, high unemployment levels and shifting election outcomes.

A Pew Research Center poll found in February that only 22 percent of Americans rated the federal government as having a positive effect on American life — precisely the same proportion who rated banks and other financial institutions positively.

“It’s clearly a standoff,” said Pew’s pollster, Andrew Kohut, though one involving coalitions of different shapes.

Blacks and Hispanics were twice as likely as whites to rate government positively, for example, and nearly four times as likely as white evangelicals. Mr. Obama’s argument draws stronger support from single women, Mr. Romney’s from white men and married women.

The contours of the partisan debate have grown familiar since Ronald Reagan called government the problem, not the solution, and the 2000 election established how closely it divides the nation.

But each side sees an opening for a breakthrough in November.

For the Romney team, it is the juxtaposition of a Democratic incumbent struggling with hard times against a Republican candidate uniquely suited to extend the arc of conservative ascendancy that began with Reagan’s antigovernment campaign in 1980.

“We haven’t had a candidate that’s been as successful from a business standpoint as Romney has been,” said Carl Forti, a strategist for the pro-Romney “super PAC” that produced the advertisement featuring his business partner. As hostile as swing voters may be toward Wall Street and big corporations, he added, “they absolutely know government’s worse.”

For Mr. Obama’s advisers, the opening lies in their ability to tie Mr. Romney to the market’s generation-long failure to deliver rising living standards to average Americans. “The country tried everything Romney says, and it brought the economy to the brink of collapse,” said Mr. Obama’s pollster, Joel Benenson. “The American people know our country has a big role to play in investing in education, in R&D to produce new industries and in infrastructure.”

That explains the Obama campaign’s recent attack on Mr. Romney’s record at Bain Capital. An Obama campaign video with sorrowful former steelworkers cast Mr. Romney as a corporate “vampire” who with his partners bought a Missouri manufacturer, siphoned away profits for themselves and bankrupted it. Mr. Obama’s defense this week of his campaign’s Bain attacks underscored the ideological clash. The president asserted that pursuit of private-sector profits was insufficient preparation for service as chief executive of government, who is obliged to consider the interests of all constituents, including workers.

The Romney campaign answered that tale of villainy with one of heroism. Its ad highlighted a different company that “Mitt Romney’s private-sector leadership team” helped start, creating 6,000 jobs.

“If that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is,” a grateful worker concluded.

The route to the American dream sketched by Mr. Obama involves critical assistance from the government. In an interactive Obama campaign graphic, the fictional character “Julia” benefits from programs like Head Start, small-business subsidies and the new health care law. The campaign recently spent $1 million on a targeted mailing to women in swing states trumpeting benefits they would lose if Mr. Romney won a repeal of the health law.

Mr. Romney dismissed the “Julia” device as an illustration of the centrality of government to Mr. Obama’s vision. He said at a rally this year, “If you’re looking for free stuff you don’t have to pay for, vote for the other guy.”

Mr. Obama promotes the two-year-old financial regulation law as protection against the depredations of Wall Street, with all the more urgency after JPMorgan Chase’s recent multibillion-dollar trading loss. Mr. Romney insists that the law inhibits private-sector-led growth and supports its repeal.

He takes the same view of the government’s involvement in bailing out auto companies, saying it rewarded unions friendly to Democrats at the taxpayers’ expense; his campaign’s new Web video features nonunion workers complaining that Washington had not helped them. Mr. Obama says the government bailout saved the industry.

Both sides supplement philosophical arguments with practical ones. Mr. Romney casts the administration’s interventions as simply ineffective; Mr. Obama’s campaign says Mr. Romney failed to deliver on jobs and government-slimming promises as governor of Massachusetts.

Yet they consistently offer voters a fundamental contrast of outlook.

Mr. Obama wants government to enhance opportunity and temper inequality through investments in education, research, infrastructure and new energy technologies — paid for with help from higher taxes on the wealthy. Mr. Romney, speaking in Des Moines last week, articulated the opposite view.

“The private sector is by far the most efficient and cost-effective” at generating economic growth, Mr. Romney said. “As President Obama and old-school liberals absorb more and more of our economy into government, they make what we do more expensive, less efficient and less useful.”

“They make America less competitive,” he concluded. “You do not owe Washington a bigger share of your paycheck.”

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Mississippi Presidential Primary Voter Guide

The Mississippi presidential primary will be held Tuesday, March 13. The New York Times states there are 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention at stake in the Mississippi primary this year. Here's a guide for voters in Mississippi who want to participate in the GOP nomination process.

Ballot

There are eight candidates on the official Mississippi ballot. Choices are listed in alphabetical order beginning with Rep. Michele Bachmann and ending with Rick Santorum. There is also a slot for a write-in candidate. All four of the mainstream choices still in the race are on the ballot in addition to four people who have dropped out of the Republican race.

Polling Times and Places

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election day for those who wish to cast ballots in the ordinary manner. Absentee ballots may be cast anytime at your local circuit clerk's office up to noon on Saturday, March 10. Mailed absentee ballots must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Monday, March 12, in order to be counted.

Polling places may be found on your voter ID card. You may also call your local election authority to find out your polling location.

What to Bring

The easiest way to identify yourself at the polls is to bring your voter identification card that you received in the mail. The registration deadline was 30 days before the March 13 primary. If you don't have your voter ID card and are registered, there are valid forms of ID you can bring with you.

Among those accepted forms of ID are a valid photo identification such as driver's license or state-issued ID card. A utility bill with your current address is also a valid form of ID that can match your name to a registered address. A current bank statement and paycheck may also be used, as long as it has your name and address listed together.

How to Vote

Mississippi has two ways to vote depending upon where you live. Optical scan ballots are one common way to vote in which voters fill out an oval using a number two pencil or a dark pen. Red pens are not allowed.

The other way to vote is with touch screen computers. The "Touch and Vote" system allows you to vote by touching a square next to a candidate choice on a computer screen. After all of the ballots have been filled in, you can print your ballot in the summary screen that shows you what choices you made.

You can go back and make changes at any time until your ballot is cast. Your ballot will be printed so you can review your choices. After it is printed, you can "reject" or "cast" your ballot. The touch screens will need to be activated by the election official at the polling place before you vote.

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

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Blue-collar voters elude presidential hopeful Romney

BOSTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is finding it tough to connect with lower-income voters in his own party, a record that bodes poorly for success in a potential general election contest with President Barack Obama.

A stream of memorable gaffes on the topic of wealth - Romney is one of the richest men ever to seek the presidency - has cast the former venture capital executive as out of touch with the concerns of working Americans.

"Romney is the most 'gaffe specific' candidate in recent memory. Typically candidates scatter their gaffes among different topics, but for Romney it's only when he talks about his wealth that he stumbles," said Dan Schnur, who was communications director for Sen. John McCain's 2000 primary campaign against George W. Bush.

Romney won the Ohio Republican primary on Tuesday but trailed former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum by 11 percentage points among voters making between $50,000 and $100,000 a year and by 6 points among those in the $30,000 to $50,000 category. A similar scenario played out in states that have voted so far in the Republican race to find a challenger to Obama.

"One thing we've seen in virtually all the exit polls is that Romney does less well, regardless of opponent, among lower income voters," said Charles Franklin, visiting professor of law and public policy at Marquette University Law School.

"That's happening within the Republican primary, rather than in the electorate as a whole. It could be expected to be an even bigger problem in the general election."

Lower-income Republicans are more likely to vote on social issues like opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, where Santorum scores highly. Some also have a suspicion of their party's northeastern business elites, said Franklin.

Ultimately, most Republican primary voters who opted for Santorum or former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich are likely to unite behind Romney in the spirit of partisanship, if he becomes the candidate.

GENERAL ELECTION VOTERS

But independents, whose support tilts the balance, arguably do not have the same type of "anyone but Obama" mentality of many Republicans.

Voters in the general election will also be less wealthy, on average, than those in the Republican primaries, making it essential Romney find a way to connect. In the 2008 general election in Ohio, for example, Obama won 52 percent, compared to 44 percent for Republican John McCain, among the 30 percent of voters who identified themselves as "independent." Obama lost the non-college white vote nationally, but by a smaller margin than his two Democratic predecessors. Only 23 percent of Ohio's 2008 general election voters had incomes over $100,000, well below the 30 percent of Republican primary voters this week in that range.

In Michigan, just 19 percent of 2008 general election voters had incomes of $100,000 or more, against 33 percent of voters in last week's Republican primary.

"Romney is going to need some working-class votes in Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa and other states to win a general election," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.

"As long as the economy is where it's at, he has a chance to win. But he needs to keep his message on the economy simple. Mitt has literally got to roll up his perfectly tailored sleeves and say, ‘I'll work hard for you.'"

With an estimated worth of some $250 million, much of it made as a corporate turnaround specialist, Romney might always be defined by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's 2008 quip that Romney "looks like the guy who fired you."

MEMORABLE GAFFES

In his second bid for the White House, Romney has kept a tight focus on his jobs-and-the-economy message. But in situations where he has been forced to ad-lib, the gaffes about wealth have come regularly. Visiting the Daytona 500 car race in February, the former Massachusetts governor said he doesn't follow car racing closely but has "some great friends who are NASCAR team owners."

The owner of three homes, who is doing a multi-million-dollar knockdown at his La Jolla, California, oceanfront estate, also recently offered details of his car collection, including his wife's two Cadillacs.

Romney's offer during a December debate to have a "$10,000 bet" with then-rival Rick Perry was not quickly forgotten. Weeks later, in New Hampshire, Romney stopped for a photo opportunity at a gas station, pumping diesel into his campaign bus.

While there, he ogled a classic car owned by the gas station's manager and wondered if it was for sale. She shot back, "Sure. Ten thousand dollars."

Suggesting Romney probably has "deep-seated psychological reasons" for being uncomfortable talking about money, Schnur suggested confronting the issue head-on.

"The best thing for him might be to try to explain to voters why he sounds awkward - perhaps that he was brought up to sound modest and not claim to be better than other people. 'I'm going to sound awkward when I talk about it. I hope you will be able to look past the occasional awkward comment,'" Schnur said.

At this point, with a large lead among Republican delegates despite a voter enthusiasm gap, Franklin said Romney's best bet was to stay the course, adding that the gaffes - which he termed accidental truth-telling - about wealth reflect "the definitive nature of Romney, it's who he is." "When candidates try to shift in mid-campaign to patch over a weakness, they are rarely successful. Romney is not in a good position to pivot to a new set of issues. He's better off going back to his core strengths and hoping those are enough. Patience may win out in this case."

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Which Presidential Candidate Will Drop Out Next? (ContributorNetwork)

There are six weeks until the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Yet there are still eight candidates vying for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. Only former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race, on Aug. 14, one day after a third-place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll. Texas Gov. Rick Perry entered the race since then. Despite sexual harassment scandals and possible shady dealings, U.S. News and World Report states candidates have remained in the race thanks to steady donors and publicity due to debates.

Who will be the next candidate to drop out? Here's a look at who might be next to fall and when.

Jon Huntsman

The Los Angeles Times reports candidates will be in Iowa today at the Thanksgiving Family Forum in Des Moines. About 2,500 people are expected to attend as candidates try to woo voters to choose them in Iowa's caucuses. The event is geared for social conservatives. The Hill reports two candidates will not be showing up to speak at the event. Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman will not be there.

Fox News states Huntsman doesn't even get in double digits in polls. His moderate views may not spur conservative voters in Iowa to choose him in the caucus. The Huffington Post reported in mid-October that Huntsman's campaign was in debt $890,000 despite an influx of $2 million of his own money. Huntsman has never gained ground in polls and may exit even before the Iowa caucuses.

Looking back at the 2008 Republican primary, the New York Times reported Mike Huckabee won with over 34 percent of the vote. There were eight candidates on the ballot, including Tom Tancredo who got five votes. PBS states Tancredo dropped out three weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Should Huntsman drop out of the race, he may have such an announcement just before Christmas.

Rep. Michele Bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota may be the next to step out of the race. Her paid staff in New Hampshire quit in mid-October as she has been focused on a campaign in Iowa to try to win the caucuses there. Bachmann won the Iowa Straw Poll in mid-August but has gone down in public opinion polling since then.

In less than a month after her win in Iowa's famous straw poll, Bachmann stood at 6 percent in national polls, according to the Washington Post. Winning Iowa is one thing, but making a claim on the national stage is another. Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 but then Sen. John McCain got the 2008 nomination against then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Bachmann may be like Pawlenty. If she doesn't have a strong showing in a border state to Minnesota, the 2012 nomination may be too farfetched for her.

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum is a former senator from Pennsylvania. The National Journal reports Santorum may have difficulties in standing out from other candidates. Despite raising $30 million against Sen. Bob Casey in 2006, Santorum lost by more than 20 points despite being a two-term Senator.

Santorum hasn't had any scandals in his campaign yet hasn't made any waves with voters. He has been focused on social issues and foreign policy as opposed to the economy and two wars. His current focus is the "Faith Family and Freedom Tour" while having a simplified plan to jumpstart the economy.

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

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Quote Roundup: Lynchburg, Va., Presidential Survey Results (ContributorNetwork)

With the presidential election still a year away, most voters are following the campaigns and listening to candidates before making their decision. Voters in the Lynchburg, Va., area seem assured President Barack Obama will not get re-elected, but they remain unsure of who the Republican nominee will be.

Here are some comments from Lynchburg-area residents:

* "I have no idea who's even running. I say whoever the Republicans nominate will win next year because Obama has screwed everything up." -- Regina Cason, administrative assistant, independent, Alta Vista, Va.

* "I consider myself a strong independent, so I'm not really following the races right now. I don't know who will win next year, but probably won't be Obama. I cannot logically imagine that he would win another election, but honestly I didn't think he would have won last time either." -- Carlita Maize, retail store manager, independent, Redding, Va.

* "I haven't really starting paying attention to the candidates yet, but I kind of like Herman Cain. He knows how to create jobs and that's what this country needs right now. I don't know who will win next year, but hopefully it won't be Obama. We need someone who can get something done and I'm tired of waiting." -- Lesa Frankenberry, self employed, Republican, Point Marion, Pa.

* "Probably (Mitt) Romney, because he ran before. I hope Herman Cain gets the nomination for vice president because he ran a good pizza company. It really don't matter to me who wins for the Republicans because President Obama needs another time in the White House. He'd do a lot more if everyone would stop picking on him and let the man do his job." -- Trinity Minns, grocery cashier, Democrat, Gladys, Va.

* "The vice president is probably going to be Herman Cain because I don't think he's going to raise the money to win the nomination in the first place. The nominee will be either Rick Perry or Mitt Romney, but they both could burn each other up in the infighting that these primaries always bring out in people. Whoever gets the nomination, they need to beat Obama and stop that nutty health care plan from killing this country." -- Benton Minnick, retired civil servant, Republican, Rustburg, Va.

* "The Republicans won't find anyone to beat Obama, so it don't matter who they pick. Obama is fighting for the working people and they are the ones who vote anyway. He just needs to get all the Republicans out of Congress and then he can his job done without them trying to stop him all the time." -- Franklin Morrison II, car wash attendant, Democrat, Madison Heights, Va.

* "I really hope Jon Huntsman can pull it off because I think he's got the experience to really help the country. Herman Cain would be a great vice president for him too. I'm not sure that Huntsman will win the nomination, but if he does I think he can beat Obama easily. Obama has too many problems with the economy and he doesn't know what he's doing." -- Mark L. Weyersmann, financial consultant, Republican, Lynchburg, Va.

* "I want President Obama to win, but I don't think he's going to. I think (Mitt) Romney is going to get the win and take Rick Perry with him as vice president. They would do good for the country I think." -- Eleanor Freeg, retired school cafeteria aide, Democrat, Lynchburg, Va.

* "It's really hard to know right now. I mean they all keep switching positions in every poll. I wanted Sarah Palin, but she's not running I'm told. Maybe the other woman will win the nomination because we need a woman in the president's spot. Palin would have been good. She was a governor and all and took care of Alaska. Obama doesn't deserve another chance. Look what he's done to the economy and all that spending." -- Mary Ach, assistant manager, Green Party, rural Lynchburg, Va.

Dan McGinnis is a freelance writer, published author and former newspaper publisher. He has been a candidate, campaign manager and press secretary for state and local political campaigns for more than 30 years.

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Republican Presidential Primary Fundraiser Winners and Losers (ContributorNetwork)

Few lines are as memorable as "Show me the money!" from "Jerry Maguire." Presidential politics requires more than experience, it also requires a lot of money. First quarter fundraising numbers are due from presidential candidates by July 15, but most of the candidates have released their numbers early.

It is easy to get lost in the top line numbers; however, we need to examine the results carefully in order to determine the winners and losers.

Winners

Mitt Romney. The obvious winner of the Q1 money cycle is Romney. The Romney campaign disclosed that they brought in $18.5 million this cycle clearly exceeding his competitors. The only drawback for Romney is that his haul was not a large as it was in 2007 and many people expected larger numbers from him.

Jon Huntsman. Huntsman is attempting to position himself as a moderate alternative to Romney and as an ambassador to China he has not been able to dedicate himself to fundraising like other candidates. He had a very respectable $4.1 million. The Huntsman campaign has clearly stated they were going to skip the Iowa caucuses and this fundraising total will make him competitive in the New Hampshire primary.

Barack Obama. Wait -- wasn't this article about the Republicans? The July 15 deadline applies to the Democrats as well. Obama and the Democratic National Committee had set a target to raise $60 million and they expected to eclipse that mark. Obama is likely to skip public financing and his staff has hinted at spending as much as $1 billion on his re-election campaign.

Losers

Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty's campaign indicated that it raised $4.2 million. Unlike Huntsman, Pawlenty was one of the first to announce his candidacy and has been raising money longer than the other candidates. These results are disappointing as he is fighting off a challenge from Bachmann in Iowa and will need to compete in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Pawlenty will need to boost his fundraising if he hopes to compete in both states.

Michele Bachmann. Bachmann is known for her grassroots fundraising efforts; however, her Q1 numbers are not expected to be impressive as she announced her candidacy late in the cycle. Her campaign has indicated that they are going to wait until the July 15 deadline, and it is unlikely that they are doing so because they are ecstatic about their numbers. More than likely the campaign is working on a strategy to prevent this disclosure from stopping her momentum from the New Hampshire debate.

The Rest of the Field. The rest of the field provided numbers that were expected and have not changed the race. Newt Gingrich's campaign raised $2.5 million, but is in debt and Ron Paul disclosed $4.5 million to fund his vanity contest. The rest of the candidates will be spending the next few weeks spinning their low numbers (if press talks to them at all).

Based on the first debate and the Q1 results there is no doubt now that Mitt Romney is the front runner. Republican donations are coming in at a slower pace than in 2007. Before we give Obama a second term we need to ensure that we understand the differences between the 2008 and 2012 elections. The 2008 election was an open election with a small number of serious candidates. The upcoming election is against an incumbent and the Republicans have at least three strong candidates and two (Palin, Perry) that have not ruled out a run. It is not unusual for the incumbent party to outpace the challengers. This year it appears that the gap is larger as the Republican money is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the field to sort itself out; however, it is likely that once a challenger is chosen the Republican candidate will not hurt for resources.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry Could Be Strong GOP Presidential Contender (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The recent mass resignations of Gingrich campaign staffers have stoked speculation about a Rick Perry presidential run. Perry, the governor of Texas, once employed Gingrich's now ex-campaign manager, Rob Johnson, and now will again, reports the Blaze.

Despite being wooed by groups like a group of California legislators, Perry's official stance is that he is still "thinking about it," according to Pajamas Media, and is now busy with the special session of the Texas legislature.

If Perry should decide to run, he would enjoy certain bragging rights that few other candidates can have in this era of economic malaise. He has not only balanced a state budget while making painful cuts in the face of opposition from special interest groups, he has presided over a state that has actually increased jobs and fostered economic growth.

According to a Wall Street Journal story, Perry's Texas has added 37 percent of all net jobs in the United States since June 2009 in an era of fitful, 1.8 percent growth. Perry can point to a business-friendly regime of low taxes, low spending, and light regulation as reasons. He might even suggest that Texas' economic growth would have been even greater had it not been for President Obama's war on the oil and gas industry.

That narrative of a Perry campaign practically writes itself: "Let me do for America, what I have done for Texas." It would be a campaign based on a record of executive competence as much as it would be on conservative ideology.

Mitt Romney, still bedeviled by the disaster that is Romneycare, would be hard pressed to offer a reason why he would get the nomination and not Perry. Perry's main rivals would be Tim Pawlenty and, if she decides to get in, Sarah Palin, both of whom have sterling records as governors of their states.

If Perry were to get the nomination, he would provide a conundrum for President Obama and his people. Obama, whose failures in economic policy are manifest, will not be able to contest Perry on that field. The only recourse would be for Obama to go on the attack, accusing Perry of balancing his state budget on the backs of school children, sick people, and the elderly. That strategy has been part of the Democratic playbook for generations and there is no reason for Obama not to use it.

The problem is that a reelection campaign is generally a referendum on the record of the sitting president seeking four more years. If Obama cannot make the case that he deserves four more years to give the country the same medicine that he has given it the first four years, he will be defeated. Jimmy Carter found that out in 1980. George H. W. Bush found that out in 1992. Obama would have to convince people that he would do a better job than a President Perry (or a President Palin, President Pawlenty, or even a President Romney.) If he cannot, he is as done as a Thanksgiving turkey.

Texas resident Mark Whittington writes about state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network.

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Santorum Becomes Republican Long Shot in Presidential Primary (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | You know the old saying: "Timing is everything." Well, Rick Santorum doesn't. Having scheduled his "official announcement" to join the growing 2012 pack of GOP candidates to take place at 11 a.m. Monday, Rick jumped the gun in an interview with George Stephanapolous on Good Morning America and declared his candidacy four hours early.

"We're ready to announce that we're going to be in this race," Santorum said grinning, pointing a thumb over his shoulder to the Somerset County courthouse behind him. "We're in it to win and we're very excited about, you know, what the ... what the future holds. We've got a great, uh, a great team in the early primary states. We've got a lot of momentum." With his repeated use of the word "we," the people-vacant steps of the Pennsylvania courthouse served as an extremely awkward backdrop.

With his bid for the presidency, one of Santorum's self-placed obstacles may be his well-documented inability to keep his opinionated mouth shut.

With a recent Gallup poll revealing the majority of Americans support gay marriage, Santorum's repeated gay-bashing statements, like comparing homosexuality to bestiality, may not be well-received. Additionally, his callous statement that John McCain, "doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works," according to Outside the Beltway, may also come back to haunt him. Because of everything Rick Santorum has "read" about enhanced interrogation techniques, he believes himself to be a greater authority on the subject than McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a POW.

Santorum's uber-enthusiastic intent to revamp Social Security will be a major stumbling block.

The former Pennsylvania senator believes voters want someone who stands for what he believes in, like his radical belief that Social Security would be better off with fewer abortions, according to the Associated Press. Furthermore, Santorum accused Rep. Paul Ryan of not having the "temerity to step forward and say we have to do Social Security," and thinks it's a good idea to apply cuts earlier than Ryan proposed. Gallup reveals Americans overwhelmingly disagree.

Santorum's lack of originality is also embarrassing. During his ill-attended announcement rally in Pennsylvania, the Obama fainting fan moment reported by NBC came across as a bit ridiculous. He even pulled the Obama water bottle toss documented many times over by the Wall Street Journal.

Santorum thinks his hard-right positions will give him an edge against the ultra-liberal Obama in 2012. What the candidate seems to forget is that his extreme right positions -- and frequently offensive presentation thereof -- are what caused him to lose re-election to the Senate in 2006.

Romney has borrowed Sen. John Kerry's old "Believe in America" slogan. Obama and Gingrich are sharing "winning the future," (AKA- "WTF?"). With his own inability to conjure an original thought, Santorum is dusting off the single word once used by CBS News anchor Dan Rather before humiliating himself out of a career: "Courage."

Considering Santorum's radical ideas, low position in most polls and low name recognition as a presidential candidate, he's going to need it.

Sources:

George Stephanapolous , "Exclusive '" Rick Santorum Will Run for President: 'We're In It to Win'", ABC News

"Santorum Quotations", Spreading Santorum.com

"For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage", Gallup

Doug Mataconis, "Rick Santorum: John McCain "Doesn't Understand" Torture", Outside the Beltway

John S. McCain, "John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account", US News

Associated Press, "Rick Santorum: Social Security fund would be OK if there were fewer abortions", PennLive.com

"Americans Oppose Cuts in Education, Social Security, Defense", Gallup

"Santorum kicks off 2012 bid in Pennsylvania", NBC

James Taranto, "We Shall Be Overcome" Wall Street Journal

"Pennsylvania Voters Reject Politics of Fear and Intolerance", Log Cabin Republicans

Paul Steinhauser, "Santorum to announce candidacy for president", CNN

"Romney's Positive Intensity Up; Santorum's Name ID Still Low" Gallup

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