I won the Iowa Caucuses and all I got was a crappy television show:
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) might win the Iowa caucuses. He is spending plenty of time there, and GOP caucus-goers are of the same mind as the anti-abortion-rights, anti-gay-marriage conservative firebrand.
But if 2008 is any guide, winning Iowa would only guarantee Santorum a television show, as it did for that year’s winner, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Democrats know this, and they are delighted to watch Santorum and other likely Republican candidates fall all over themselves to lay claim to the role of the social conscience of the GOP.
Because while Republicans are running to the right on social issues in an effort to win support in Iowa, they could be alienating the independent and centrist voters who will decide the general election.
The idea is that any talk that isn’t about the economy is helpful to the president, just like any talk that wasn’t about the war in Iraq (like gay marriage) was helpful to Bush in 2004. So, it’s a complete flip.
I’d argue that the Republicans really have no arguments on any level that really work for them in a general election. They alienate everybody. Complaining about spending only gets you so far and it isn’t much of an argument when your party controls the House of Representatives and is cutting spending that people actually like. They could exploit glaring weaknesses in our foreign policy, but they’re on the wrong (hawkish) side of those issues. It’d be easier to talk about creating jobs if they weren’t intent on destroying them.
I totally hope that Rick Santorum wins the Iowa Caucuses. That would be so awesome.
