An article by Kareem HassanienJan 4 2012
I have stayed up late tonight with a whole host of other political bloggers writing about our latest water cooler TV story. Amusing as it may be to see an old cat lady sing a song well or watch Paula Abdul in a drug induced stupor, American Idol has never had a selection of back and forth, up and down losers like this. Jeff Probst may have twists and turns in Survivor but how the hell did Santorum find a hidden immunity idol amongst all that Iowa corn? No matter what way you slice it this primary season may leave voters all kinds of disenchanted (especially Republicans if you see my last article) but it sure has been some fun TV to watch.
With 99% of Iowa precincts reporting Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are split at 25% with Ron Paul coming in at around 21%. Santorum who until a week and a half ago was just the other redneck somehow convinced enough Iowans to give him supreme conservative nut status and send the original redneck Rick Perry’s campaign into suspension. It’s quite an achievement for a campaign that three weeks ago was polling at just over 5% in that very same state. So basically if this was Survivor Santorum not only found the Immunity idol when he knew he was going to be voted out he just stole the conservative base alliance out from Gingrich, Perry and Bachman!
However much like in Survivor it was a move that may buy a few more days but not really a guarantee to the end game. Everyone knows at this point Romney is probably going to win immunity in New Hampshire and Newt Gingrich is as likeable as Survivor villain Russell Hantz. Ron Paul is probably a guy like Coach from the last season. A likeable enough guy but with foreign policy ideas so far out from where the rest of the Republican party is that he’ll never get past the jury of evangelicals.
Which brings us back to our star of the night and new flavor of the week, the last of the Republicans to not have a surge at one point during this primary season. Jon Stewart was brilliant in comparing him to the last chocolate we haven’t tried in the box that we know has that weird cherry goop in it. Rick Santorum was literally the last bastion for the Anybody-but-Romney front. However it shows once again how absolutely short sighted these voters are as he is maybe the little train that could in Iowa but could never be the little train that can for the Presidency.
Santorum is a social issues candidate and where he stands is far to the right of most of the American public in the general election. It would be all too easy for Obama to call him out on his stances on outlawing birth control and his extreme positions on gay marriage. Let’s not forget Santorum was the guy who compared homosexuality with having sex with dogs and let’s also not forget that another way to say the name ‘Rick’ is ‘Dick’.
Regardless of his far right stances this isn’t an election on social issues. It’s the economy stupid. The reason Santorum has not come under fire leading up to this point is because he was so far out of range nobody could hit him. Romney spent millions on attack ads on Gingrich leading up to Iowa. Huntsman just gave up and went to New Hampshire while Perry and Bachman just rode their crazy trains in a circle and now have to see if they have enough gas to get to the South. However now with Gingrich beaten down he’ll become the attack dog and suddenly Santorum will have to take his new place in the light. Romney knows with his likely win in New Hampshire the last fights will probably come in the South which aren’t his strong states but at least Mitt has enough chips to keep seeing the flop. This just means it’s a matter of time before Santorum hears “Rick, The tribe has spoken” and his fire is snuffed out.
Of course just as in many other reality shows I couldn’t really care less about any of the characters and don’t really wanna see any of them win…but… I still can’t wait to see the next episode…
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