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Santorum Must Make Common Cause with Ron Paul Supporters

By on 4.2.12 @ 10:02AM

Because my column this morning already was so ridiculously long, I left out a point I wanted to make. But here’s a key consideration: If Rick Santorum hopes to win his challenges to the Arizona and Florida delegations, and hopes to win a convention battle on the second or later ballot, it is a near-imperative for him to start doing more to appeal to people who back Ron Paul. There probably will be well over 100 delegates at the convention who are committed on the first ballot to Paul; they will be free agents — THE key free agents — after the first ballot. And their numbers, if they shift heavily to Romney, could put Romney over the top. If they shift largely to Santorum, they could go a long way toward making Santorum the winner.

Right now, Santorum has spent more time criticizing Ron Paul’s foreign policy than he has spent emphasizing the parts of his own economic plans that dovetail nicely with Paul’s positions. Santorum is no libertarian on many “social issues” (such as legalizing drugs), but he supports reforms of the Federal Reserve; he supports free-market economics to a greater extent than Romney does; and he is far closer to Paul than Romney appears to be on certain civil liberties. But Santorum hasn’t done enough to make this clear. Unless he does, on these and a number of other issues, the Paul delegates may not swing his way.

You can’t build a coalition without reaching out. Santorum’s campaign needs to find ways to make common cause.

View all comments (24) |

Paul| 4.2.12 @ 11:49AM

Santorum appealing to Ron Paul supporters....

Now that is about the most unlikely, unworkable idea yet floated this cycle. And what makes Quin think that the flow of delegates is going to go from Paul to anyone else rather than from Santorum and Romney to Paul?

Le Cracquere| 4.2.12 @ 12:06PM

A candidate who'd play footsie with Paul has effectively removed himself from the ranks of serious primary factors. And for every Paul supporter Santorum converts, he's likely to repel two of his existing supporters. Doesn't compute.

9thID| 4.2.12 @ 12:08PM

Here is one more reason why no one should be seeking “Voluntaryist” Ron Paul’s support and it’s from the Libertarian von Mises Institute and Paul’s supporters. To quote the Libertarian von Mises's website:
"In this video, using Ron Paul's own words from his books and interviews, it is shown that Ron Paul's goal is voluntaryism. He adopts limited-government positions and appeals to the U.S. Constitution as part of a long-term strategy for achieving a completely free society, absent any State."

In his own words, Paul admits his stated support for the Constitution is only an ends to a means of Voluntaryism and that his methodology is "highly controversial".

http://mises.org/Community/for.....31256.aspx
or:
http://tinyurl.com/7bph329

Paul| 4.2.12 @ 12:10PM

Right. Ron Paul has horrible ideas from a Republican persepctive:

Pro life, smaller government, support of liberty, sound money, following the constitution, principles over politics, refusal to be paid off by corporate interests, etc.

But it is true that refusing to bow to corporate interests would kill the support for any candidate in either party.

Dai Alanye | 4.2.12 @ 2:30PM

Not to mention RonPaul's refusal to defend America from foreign aggression. Got to admire him for his unwillingness to worry about American citizens who are imprisoned or mistreated by tyrannical governments, much less protect American businesses from seizure.

John Drake| 4.2.12 @ 3:14PM

Defending America from foreign agression (which Paul is for) is not at all the same as advocating American aggression and playing God all over the world (which Paul is against).

Conservative Not Republican| 4.2.12 @ 12:25PM

You forgot to mention that Ron Paul puts America's interests first. That also disqualifies him for office.

Martin | 4.2.12 @ 12:28PM

The problem is the entire Santorum campaign, which is the creation of the loonies in Iowa, just as the Huckabee campaign was in '08. Santorum's not up to the job, either of being President or of winning an election against Obama, and because he took all the air out of the Perry and Gingrich campaigns, we're stuck with Mitt.

He's also about as unattractive to Paulites as its possible to be without being Obama; he has insulted them continually, his foreign policy is a neocon fantasy and he has no interest in liberty of any kind.

Sweep him off into the dustbin of history, and let's make some changes so Iowa doesn't mess the process up in '16 or '20, just as it did in '08 and '12.

Dai Alanye | 4.2.12 @ 2:35PM

Perry and Gingrich killed their own campaigns, and deserve full credit for doing so.

As for Paul, he's in the process of selling out to Romney even as we blog.

Still, Quin is correct that Santorum should make more effort to appeal to the less deluded of the Paul supporters, such as by continually criticizing the Federal Reserve for Bernanke's efforts to destroy the value of our currency.

Connection, Not Compromise| 4.2.12 @ 12:32PM

Yes, Quin! You are right on!

As a delegate to my County GOP Assembly last week, I listened to over 90 delegates give speeches defining their reasons for wanting to be elected to the State Convention. Without fail, every Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul delegate expressed concern about our loss of freedoms, the disregard of our Constitution by the Obama administration, and the out of control spending by the Federal Government. Over the course of day, it became more and more apparent to me that as Santorum, Gingrich, and (yes) Ron Paul supporters, we shared more in common domestically than we have differences.

In contrast, the Romney delegates were concerned about getting the economy back on track. Period.

Casey Abell| 4.2.12 @ 12:50PM

Uh, yeah, libertarian Ronnie can't wait to throw in with the guy who crusades against birth control. Even for Hillyer, this is a 106-degree fever swamp.

Bryan Collins| 4.2.12 @ 1:15PM

It is kind of boneheadded, not to mention arrogant, to assume that Ron Paul's fanatics are going to vote for anyone other than Paul. They are more set in stone that the Easter Island heads, suggesting that they are "key free agents" is nothing more than a mastubatory exercise that won't happen in real life.

Occam's Tool| 4.2.12 @ 2:00PM

I'm not sure my dear Quin has met many Ronulans---he lives in Alabama, where American defense is sacred, and to blame America for 9/11 is to court an ass-whipping.

I still have my Alabama medical license, and my wife is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of The Capstone. I, myself, taught at U of A medical school. Roll Tide!

Les| 4.2.12 @ 1:47PM

Santorum should have tried to make the ballot in every state and congressional district if he seriously wanted to be potus.

Dai Alanye | 4.2.12 @ 2:42PM

Please, folks, try to show a more comprehensive knowledge of the process. Santorum's spotty exposure isn't due to lack of trying -- no-one has worked harder in this campaign than him. From day one his difficulty has been lack of funds with which to oppose that wealthy born loser, Romney. Considering the odds, his degree of success has been phenomenal.

Don't criticize Rick, send him a donation.

Matthew Hoffman| 4.2.12 @ 1:58PM

This article could not be MORE wrong. A majority of Paul supporters are "Ron Paul or Not at All" and I am one of them. To think that Santorum would swing the Paul supporters is just flat out ignorant, and sophomoric. Try writing about something you can handle and maybe get right, like anything but politics.

Quin| 4.2.12 @ 2:38PM

The point is that there will be Ron Paul supporters who are delegates at the national convention. Their votes will be crucial. If they vote for anybody else, or even if they abstain, they make it harder for Romney to get the 1,144 he needs to win. Yes, even an abstention amounts to a vote. It takes a majority of elected delegates, not just a majority of delegates actually voting, to win the nomination. So "Ron Paul or not at all" amounts to an inaction that hurts Romney.....

spike59| 4.3.12 @ 7:24AM

The point is that there will be Ron Paul supporters who are delegates at the national convention. Their votes will be crucial.
========================
all 5 of them

Oldefarte| 4.2.12 @ 2:44PM

Shazam, no doubt all you super conservatives will now critisize this man as a RINO-CINO etc STUPIDLY [just as you have with everyone else endorsing Romney and requesting a consolidation of Republican support] :
'..... ACU Chairman Calls on Romney’s Rivals to Exit Monday, April 2, 2012 10:02 AM
By: Ronald Kessler Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. — Mitt Romney’s rivals must end their presidential campaigns if Republicans are to retake the White House, Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, tells Newsmax.Cardenas, who has endorsed Romney, says that if Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich continue their campaigns into the GOP convention in late August, Republicans will not have time to raise money and organize to beat President Obama.
Al Cardenas addresses the 39th CPAC on Feb. 9 in Washington, D.C.“I’m calling on supporters of the other candidates and their peer group whom they listen to, to say to them, ‘I respect you, I care for you, I don’t regret having fought a good fight, but I’m moving on, and I hope you consider doing the same,’” Cardenas says. “That’s the message to my friends who are still in the camps of the other candidates.”With one million members, the American Conservative Union is the preeminent organization representing the full spectrum of conservative thought. It runs the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which dominates the conservative political agenda, and publishes an annual “Rating of Congress,” the gold standard for assessing members’ ideology.
When he was 12, Cardenas and his family fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba with only the clothes on their back. He became a prominent lawyer in Miami and a successful investor. He essentially rebuilt the Republican Party in Florida, becoming its chairman and helping Jeb Bush win election as governor. He was a mentor to Sen. Marco Rubio, who was a young lawyer in Cardenas’ Miami law firm.“The level of discourse in the campaign has begun to appeal to our lower instincts instead of our higher instincts,” Cardenas says. “Candidates are concentrating more on each other’s superficial faults than talking about our vision for tomorrow or taking on the president. And that wear and tear is having a detrimental effect on the general election process.” What tipped the scales for Cardenas and made him issue a call for the remaining candidates to drop out was that “both Speaker Gingrich and Sen. Santorum have publicly stated that their campaign strategy is no longer winning the nomination outright but preventing Mitt Romney from getting the nod and fighting it out at the convention,” Cardenas says. “That’s just not a workable formula. There’s no way we can compete with the Barack Obama machine given an eight-week time period. You can’t raise resources.” To be effective, “You’ve got to spend money on day one, and you can’t start day one being the day after the convention and organize all 50 states, or at least swing states,” Cardenas says. “We just would not be competitive.” So the question becomes, “Are we willing to give up the White House for the sake of letting the contest run through the convention? And the answer to me, clearly, is no,” Cardenas says.
Cardenas says he has always felt that Romney is a conservative who is the most competent presidential candidate and would have the best chance of defeating President Obama.
“It’s not that difficult to be a successful conservative governor of Oklahoma,” Cardenas says. “It’s far more difficult to be a conservative governor of Massachusetts. Mitt Romney clearly ran the executive branch of government in Massachusetts as far to the right as one possibly could.”Cardenas cites the fact that romney vetoed more than 800 bills that he felt conflicted with fiscal and social conservative principles. He balanced the budget and left a surplus. Romney’s healthcare plan for Massachusetts was developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation. At the time, Gingrich and other conservative leaders endorsed the idea. The Massachusetts legislature, where 85 percent of the members were Democrats, tacked on provisions that made the legislation more costly, Cardenas says.“Romney has clearly said that the federal mandate at the heart of the Obama healthcare bill is unacceptable,” Cardenas says. “He’s clearly said that he would work with the Congress to repeal it on day one of his presidency. And he clearly has said he would give day-one waivers to all the states to abandon it. I’m comfortable with that answer, and I’m comfortable with the fact that he would govern as a conservative.”
As for the claim that Romney is a flip-flopper, “If you agree with that claim, then in essence you’re closing the door to everyone who has transitioned in their public views,” Cardenas says. “As conservatives, we’ve always had a penchant for embracing those who found their way into our ranks. We did that with Ronald Reagan, who proved to be every bit as trustworthy as we had hoped.” Especially on some social issues, Romney’s thinking has evolved, Cardenas says.
“He’s been preaching the conservative message now for a long time, and I take him at his word that he’s had this conversion on a few critical issues,” Cardenas says. “I know that he’s always governed as conservatively as he could, given the circumstances. I’m comfortable with his evolution, and I’m comfortable with the honesty and integrity of that evolution.” Cardenas says Romney’s character is flawless.“He has a reputation that is beyond reproach in the business world, which is as cutthroat a world as there is at his level,” Cardenas says. “In terms of his family life, he’s been a loyal husband and loving father for four decades, and he’s led an admirable personal life, not only with his family but with his faith, in terms of how much effort and resources he’s put to support his faith, and those who depend on it.”Rivals who have attacked Romney’s Bain Capital because it let go workers don’t seem to appreciate how capitalism works, Cardenas says.“Those Democrats who criticize him criticize him for the same reasons they don’t want to shrink a bloated government,” Cardenas says. ”They think that giving a pink slip to a government bureaucrat in order to reduce the size of government is a heartless thing. We consider that to be a champion of the taxpayer’s rights to keep more of our money.”In business, Cardenas says, “You sometimes have two choices: You either reduce the work force and save the business, or the business fails and then everybody’s out of work."Asked if Romney will tap Rubio to run as his vice presidential candidate, Cardenas says he is confident the Florida senator will be among Romney’s top picks.“If he gets the call, I’m hoping he says yes,” Cardenas says. “I know Marco wants to be the best senator he can be. He’s not lobbying for the job. But it’s very hard to turn down a future president in terms of serving your country.”....'

Oldefarte| 4.2.12 @ 2:53PM

PS: Yeah, maybe the Rickster should also begin to solicit the political support of labor union members also, huh? Oh wait, he's previously and currently doing that already, I forgot. Maybe he should additionally seek the support of female voters, since he's already destroyed any chance in hades of same by his extreme concentration upon abortion and religious matters. Oh he'ss get the Catholic coccer mom vote, but that only numbers 21 if we're lucky. Maybe he'll seek the DC lobbyist vote since he was one of those himself before entering politics. Or maybe he'll hypocritically seek the GO ALONG TO GET ALONG POLITICAL COMPROMISE VOTE [TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM] but shazam since he's the king of same as previously documented, he's got that one in the bag. Oh I know he should seek the professional business administrators-managers vote since he's so well versed insuch practices as a CAREER SENATOR [UNTIL DEFEATED IN HIS HOME STATE THAT IS]!!!!!!!

Oldefarte| 4.2.12 @ 3:51PM

The following is an example of his incompetitence. WHY do we need a replacement to WELFARECARE administered at the state level. Horse excrement, we don't need any universal health insurance, as Medicare is enough. If financial indigents don't have their own insurance, then they need to go to work for a company providing same [if they're mentally able to do so]. Again he says nothing but generalities in his dispute over WELFARECARE because he's knowledgably inept [and he's only saying thus so that he can politically attack Romney over same, which is stupid]:
'....Santorum: 'We Can Do Better' Than Obamacare Monday, April 2, 2012 10:12 AM
By: Henry J. ReskeGOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has proposed a healthcare system that he says is more flexible, increases competition, and offers more choices than Obamacare, which takes away from Americans the basic freedom of choice, the former Pennsylvania senator writes in an Op-Ed in USA Today. “We can do better,” Santorum says.“Obamacare prohibits health savings accounts, and turns the insurance industry into a federally controlled public utility,” Santorum wrote. “My plan would allow all Americans to shop around and get their health insurance on the open market — just like they buy other kinds of insurance.”Santorum also envisions a system of state-run risk pools for those with “health conditions that make insurance companies unwilling to take them, such as my little daughter Bella.”
“We don't want to destroy America's advantage as the world's leader in innovative medicine. Since the mid-1970s, American residents hold more medical technology patents and have won more Nobel Prizes in medicine than residents of other countries combined.“America has forever been the world's last bastion of freedom. For generations, we have fought to preserve the principles of liberty. Freedom and liberty are at the core of my health care proposal. Individuals, not the government, can and should make health care choices for themselves.”Santorum notes that the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that as many as 20 million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance under President Barack Obama’s health care law currently before the Supreme Court and that premium costs will rise.“Obamacare — based on Romneycare, the plan Massachusetts adopted when Mitt Romney was governor — tells insurance companies which benefits their policies must offer and what range of prices they could charge,” Santorum wrote. “It requires that individuals buy conforming policies, and cuts $500 billion from Medicare. The Independent Payment Advisory Board will limit what treatments doctors can prescribe.“Consistent with the principles upon which our country was founded, Americans know that Obamacare is bad policy, bad medicine, bad for the country and badly needs repeal. Republicans need a nominee with the credibility to take on President Obama on an issue vital to voters, and a president who will repeal Obamacare. I will be that president.”......'

Oldefarte| 4.2.12 @ 4:00PM

PS: Doesn't the idiot realize that WE DON'T WANT TO DO BETTER AND THAT WE WERE ALREADY DOING SO BEFORE OBAMA/DEMOCRATS CRAMMED DOWN OUR THROATS THEIR WELFARECARE [whose purpose is to steal Medicare from seniors and give it the snot-nosed twenty-somethings who are stupid, don't work, don't want to work etc ALL FOR THE PURPOSES OF OBTAINING THEIR VOTES FOR DEMOCRATS??????????????

Brian Shaughnessy| 4.3.12 @ 12:31AM

Most Ron Paul supporters would upchuck at the idea of supporting any of these other candidates. Not Santorum, not Romney, not Gingrich and not Obama. They are all the same -- compromised, establishment, status-quo candidates who would never do any of the things that Ron and his supporters feel are critical at this time. Ron couldn't deliver them to Santorum even if he tried. Santa and the Grinch will be making a deal to drop out not later than BEFORE the first ballot at Tampa.

spike59| 4.3.12 @ 7:26AM

don't overestimate the importance of DrEarmark's cult followers; when he inevitably goes '3rd party', as has likely been the plan all along, they will shamble along behind him, trailing cheetos crumbs

More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer

http://spectator.org/blog/2012/04/02/santorum-must-make-common-caus

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