The new Des Moines Journal Register poll shows Rick Santorum surging into third place, tying up the votes of the evangelicals:
What makes Santorum’s growth spurt particularly striking is his last-second rise: He averaged 10 points after the first two nights of polling, but doubled that during the second two nights. Looking just at the final day of polling, he was just one point down from Romney’s 23 percent on Friday.
The Republican party in Iowa reminds me of a patient with a terminal disease (Romneyitis) desperately turning to alternative medacine. They’ve cycled through homeopathy (Bachmann), naturopathy (Cain), chelation (Perry) and aromatherapy (Paul). Now they’ve hit the final frontier–urotheraphy. I’m glad that I’ve never been so desperately ill that I’ve contemplated drinking my own piss, but I can imagine what it might feel like if I consider the level of desperation needed to vote for Rick Santorum.
J-Mo
“The Republican party in Iowa reminds me of a patient with a terminal disease (Romneyitis) desperately turning to alternative medacine. They’ve cycled through homeopathy (Bachmann), naturopathy (Cain), chelation (Perry) and aromatherapy (Paul). Now they’ve hit the final frontier—urotheraphy. I’m glad that I’ve never been so desperately ill that I’ve contemplated drinking my own piss, but I can imagine what it might feel like if I consider the level of desperation needed to vote for Rick Santorum.”
Kudos. That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read on this blog. I’m still laughing.
Ron
Dear GOP, All I want for the new year is for Santorum to be your nominee. Love, me.
Keith G
Out of desperation Newt creates an ugly anti Obama attack that will be bouncing around the Right for the next year and more.
What a fine American Gingrich is.
4tehlulz
So the GOP is like Steve Jobs, who ignored traditional medicine (sanity) in favor of alternative medicine?
4tehlulz
Also, too, given that were talking about Santorum, wouldn’t a hi colonic be a more appropriate metaphor?
Linda Featheringill
@Keith G:
Ol’ Newt may have done us lefties a favor with that poutrage. Go ahead, guys, let us be the party of non-WASPs, young people, and the elderly. Thank you.
Egg Berry
I saw what you did there.@4tehlulz:
I believe Jobs had a liver transplant.
Linda Featheringill
@4tehlulz:
In defense of Steve Jobs let me say that when you actually get active pancreatic cancer it might not matter a whole lot what kind of therapy you choose.
On the other hand, it might not matter which one of those clowns the Republican voters choose. The end result might be the same.
Linda Featheringill
http://news.yahoo.com/republican-candidate-romney-veto-immigration-dream-act-023856783.html
Speaking of gifts from the Republicans, here is Romney speaking out against the Dream Act.
This was featured as a headline on Yahoo, by the way, so it will get a lot of attention.
Thank you, thank you.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, that $1 million purchase of VanderWhore’s endorsement is paying off, it seems. What remains to be seen is if this is just a flash in the pan for the frothy one.
Villago Delenda Est
@Linda Featheringill:
Romney is not repeating Perry’s fatal streak of humanity. He’s going full racist asshole, to the delight of the lower life forms that constitute the GOP’s base.
Cheryl from Maryland
Where’s Newt in the list of treatments for Romneyitis — I vote for patent medicines (e.g. snake oil salesman).
Jim C
Des Moines Journal?
Is that a new daily newspaper in Iowa?
dmsilev
You know, I’m concerned that a Santorum surge means we’re going to use up our limited reserves of double entendres long before the election. Peak Snark, if you will. I believe that the time has come to form OSEC, the Organization of Snark Exporting Commentators, with the mission statement of managing the proven snark reserves as well as ensuring a reasonable market price for exported snark.
It’s the only way to avoid a Santorum bubble.
Egg Berry
@dmsilev: peak snark is a lie. on the other hand, peak irony, peak satire have already been reached.
Napoleon
@Linda Featheringill:
NPR played it as well.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©
“Santorum Coming From Behind”
~
4tehlulz
@Egg Berry:
@Linda Featheringill:
Steve Jobs Regretted Wasting Time on Alternative Medicine
4tehlulz
@Villago Delenda Est: Good work on handing AZ to Obama and putting TX in play, Mittens.
Dustin
Nah. This is the guy who just came out and said he’d gladly nullify all existing gay marriages to protect the sanctity of marriage. The GOP car crash should still be burning bright come election day at this rate; I wouldn’t worry about running out of snark material.
Egg Berry
@4tehlulz: you confuse “ignoring” with “delaying.”
RalfW
@Linda Featheringill: The comments on Yahoo are, of course, a sewer of anti-immigrant ignorance and “oh I pay my taxes, illegals steal from gov’t” butthurt.
What these yobbos don’t get is that the browning of America is well under way. But let ’em rave.
As the reprehensible Ann Coulter said the other day “But capitulate on illegal immigration, and the entire country will have the electorate of California.”
But she’s wrong. Given birth rates and legal immigration, the US is gonna look more and more like California (and Texas) anyway.
And of course the supine media doesn’t generally point out that illegal immigration has trickled to nearly nothing. It’s the economy, generally, but Obama’s ICE has been at work too.
I know it’s a waste of time to say this, but if illegal immigration dropped this low under a Bush or a McCain (shudder), they’d be sending out bragging press releases every damn time the new low numbers were released. They wouldn’t care about cause or effect, but would grab credit.
SiubhanDuinne
The Des Moines newspaper article places “Santorum” and “spurt” within two words of each other.
Surely that’s not an accident.
skepticscott
So Gingrich would be what….colonic irrigation?
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne: Remember how pissed off the right wing became once they realized what ‘teabagger’ meant and why a bunch of liberals were sniggering at them? If the Santorum Surge continues, expect a repeat of that.
I’ll bring the popcorn.
Linda Featheringill
@4tehlulz:
Steve Job’s cancer:
I didn’t know that he had a milder type of cancer that could have been successfully treated. I assumed that he had the usual pancreatic cancer, which has a high mortality rate.
So in his case, his decisions about therapy amounted to suicide. Somebody must have told him that.
The quoted statement from him about not wanting his body violated with surgery sounds a bit irrational. We all have irrational fears of one kind or another. His killed him.
Bummer, as we used to say.
heydave
I’m guessing that the rag of note was the Des Moines Register.
Nonetheless, a Santorum surge; feel it!
And then clean up.
Baud
@Linda Featheringill: @Napoleon:
The key is that Romney’s stance will get lots of attention in Spanish media. This really could be a game changer if he gets the nomination.
ETA: After posting, I realized my mistake in assuming that Romney’s position on the DREAM Act wouldn’t change if he is the nominee. Oops.
Uncle Glenny
Bachman is colloidal silver next to homeopathy.
Santorum is coffee enemas.
Newt is hyperbaric chamber – he’s overoxygenated and can’t shut up.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©:
Of course he is, that froth isn’t going to get whipped up without some action!
kay
It’s good news because they don’t want to vote for Romney because of his religion.
They’ll fall in line when he’s the nominee, but they’re not going to be happy about it.
Romney simply doesn’t pass the religious test for public office, but they’re stuck with him.
It’s amusing to watch the political press ignore the elephant in the room, for fear of offending conservatives.
Democrats didn’t get this deference when race issues came up in the Clinton-Obama primary.
They wouldn’t shut up about that.
Still, it’s real and it’s a problem for Romney.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Egg Berry:
Indeed he did (likely bumping people with less coin) but he used “alternative” treatment for the first couple of years after his surgery, which is probably why he needed the liver transplant. He looked back to conventional medical mode once the raw diet and supplements failed him and there was metastasis. So he shortened his own life, in all probability. And I say that as someone who is happy to look beyond western medicine.
dmsilev
RedState is rather amusing to read right now. The commentariat are split between those who are grudgingly starting to accept Romney (and, of course, beginning the MiniTruth historical “corrections” to prove that he’s always been a true conservative) and the bitter-enders who, of course, are split between 3 or 4 NotRomneys. Right now, there appear to be more of the latter, but the former group is becoming more prominent.
The Paulists seem to have all been banned by now.
Baud
@kay: I think the bigger problem for Romney is that all nominees tend to move back to the center after getting the nom. No big deal usually, but Romney is such an untrustworthy flip-flopper that every move he makes to the center will be scrutinized by true believers for signs of betrayal.
Linda Featheringill
@Baud:
It won’t matter if he does change his stance. He’s already made this statement and the news of it will be spread far and wide.
The word “Hispanic” covers a lot of different people and I don’t know about everybody but it has been my observation that Mexican-Americans have loooooong memories. They won’t forget.
Hal
This illustrates yet again why I think it is fundamentally flawed thinking to overestimate Romney’s ability to win the general election. The GOP base does not want the guy, and he doesn’t have the history and military record someone like McCain had to sway voters.
I’m not saying re-election for Obama is going to be easy, but I also wouldn’t start looking up jobs and U Chicago’s Law department if I were him.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
So, are any of the FPers planning on tackling Obama’s signing statement from the defense bill?
kay
Baud, religious conservatives dragged Bush over the finish line in Ohio.
The Bush organizing events, locally, were ALL fundamentalist religious.
They loved Bush. “He’s a good man” is a sort of code, I discovered.
Romney better hope there’s a lot of white independents out there.
smintheus
Post of the year.
amk
The base really, really hates willard, doesn’t it ? rick fucking santorum ??? Gimme a break.
Linda Featheringill
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I read that he made a verbal statement to the effect that his administration would work to preserve the rights of US citizens on US soil. Weak, but better than nothing. I guess.
ETA: I guess he did put something into the signing statement.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0101/Obama-signs-defense-bill-despite-serious-reservations
I still think it was weak.
Cermet
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): From my following his illness, he never lived long enough after getting the diagnosis’ about having cancer to spend years doing alternate meds – from the experts I read he was unlikely to survive no matter the treatments or when he started the approved ones so jumping to the conclusion that the alternate meds really killed him is not correct from my reading on the subject. I do not believe in alternate meds at all, but some cancers just can not be stop so what is the harm? He was a dead man no matter what he did from what the experts said – still, if otherwise, I’d really like to know.
I do agree that the liver transplant was a waste (really no hope at all) and most likely cost someone else their life – that is what having money is all about in the US of amerika – no surprise there.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Baud: That’s so true – his penchant for flipping to stay in the fair wind will hurt him in the general with the already suspicious base. However, with the play this will get in the Spanish language media, the demographic that reads/listens to that will not forget, and will vote accordingly.
Benjamin Franklin
@Linda Featheringill:
Are we allowed to discuss such matters @BJ? : >)
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Linda Featheringill:
This DK post has the actual signing statement.
Mike in NC
I’m convinced all of these “surges” have been pure media creations designed to fuel the horse race mentality they require for each and every election cycle.
Benjamin Franklin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Bagram detainees are Marcy’s biggest concern.
http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/12/31/the-worst-part-of-the-signing-statement-section-1024/
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Cermet:
Slate interview with cancer researcher. My memory was faulty – he pursued the diet only cure prior to the second surgery, and I’ve read other pieces where docs say, given he had the very survivable kind of neuroendocrine tumor (which a friend of mine is treating now and docs are very positive, almost casual about her long term survival – but she had surgery straight off and then chemo) which he elected not to treat surgically. I’ll just post the links offered above, though I read info previously in more mainstream press.
Harvard researcher discusses it.
Ilia
@Linda Featheringill: The word pancreatic cancer is a misnomer (like most cancers named after an organ). Like most organs, pancreas consists of multiple cell types arising from different germ lines. The really deadly pancreatic cancers are in the exocrine cells (the ones that produce the enzymes our pancreas uses to digest fats, proteins, carbs, etc. in the food we eat). However, a small subset of tumors in the pancreas arise from the neuroendocrine cells, the ones that produce insulin and glucagon and other hormones for our body. Jobs had one of these tumors. The prognosis is still bad (20% survival in 5 years IIRC), but not the “dead in a year” that usually applies to pancreatic cancers.
Also, if you’re wondering why he got a liver transplant when the cancer was in his pancreas… metastasis. Liver is usually the first place hit with these.
suzanne
THIS is Santorum. No question.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Benjamin Franklin: In part, that’s why I wanted to see something from people who are definitely way more knowledgeable about the fractal line between the executive and legislative branches than me to look at the signing statement. A lot of the statement seems to be concerned with separating the laws that the Legislature can make from the Legislature trying to tell the Executive branch how to do its job, and there are way more details than I am even willing to dig into. The link was rather informative, though she should have left out “He included squishy language so as to pretend he doesn’t fully support indefinite detention.” She’s assuming that he actually does.
WereBear
@Cermet: I read an article by a survivor of the same cancer (pancreatic neuroendocrine) who concluded the opposite from his own experience. At the time of diagnosis, Jobs could have had surgery, which does not involve chemo or radiation, and had an excellent prognosis.
I wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone; but if you gotta have it, this would be a great choice!
IMHO, what killed Steve Jobs was the entirely misguided dietary advice of Dr. Dean Ornish. From Ancel Keys to Ornish, this tactic is not supported by science, but is ideologically driven. Eating no fat/whole grain/avoid meat did nothing to stop cancer; and in fact, encourages it.
For details, here is an excellent article:
The Steve Jobs Diet, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Vegetarian Cancer
With health resolutions topping everyone’s list this New Year’s, that article has a great deal to ponder over. And since I’ve been basically following similar lifestyle advice with great success, I agree with the writer’s recommendations.
smintheus
@Cheryl from Maryland: I guess that would mean we’ve already hit peak snake oil.
Benjamin Franklin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
She’s trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. To me, all this HS is
just a shell game, like the wording in bundled credit-default swaps.
JGabriel
@4tehlulz:
No. Unlike the GOP, Steve Jobs sometimes created jobs.
.
Dustin
@Ilia: Excellent points. As far as pancreatic cancers go Jobs would most likely still be his cranky, rich, paranoid genius self today if he’d followed proper science-based-medicine, but he didn’t. Hell the pancreas isn’t even a vital organ, you can function successfully without one just fine on a low-fat diet. They could have just chopped the whole organ out while his cancer was pre-metastatic and he’d probably have been just fine.
Citizen_X
Is the GOP finally ready to drink the Santorum?
WereBear
@Dustin: Low fat is often the first stage after losing the gall bladder; maybe you are thinking low carb? Which is recommended for pancreatic difficulties.
JGabriel
@Linda Featheringill:
Just like Olympia: they look the same, they talk the same, they even fuck the same. No reason to think they wouldn’t govern the same.
Of course, since we’re talking about Republicans, “fuck” and “govern” are basically synonymous.
.
McJulie
@kay: You’re absolutely right about Bush being the most darling beloved of the religious right, and “good man” being code for this — it was something I noticed all along in his campaign, was that the right-leaning religious people I encountered all seemed to be over the moon about him.
But do you, or anyone really, have a good insight as to WHY? I could never figure it out. I mean, he threw them a lot of rhetorical bones, but right wingers always do that. They really seemed to think he was their guy. They really seemed to think he was special.
My tongue-in-cheek theory was that it was because he was, in fact, the Antichrist, in a very literal sense in which worship of GWB replaced worship of Christ in many right-leaning churches and households.
Certainly, I think — genuinely, without hyperbole — that he is clinically a sociopath. One of the odd things about sociopaths is that they often cause bitterly polarized visceral reactions. Either you think he’s the kindest, decentest, most charming person ever to walk the planet, or you think he’s got creepy eyes and you wouldn’t leave your cat alone with him.
So maybe that played a role, but I’m still kinda mystified by the phenomenon.
grandpa john
@Linda Featheringill: Also someone should ask him about the financing for this little gem also
wrb
Oh the irony.
You know of Santorum presidency will result in the full realization of The Gay Agenda.
There won’t be a 1st=grader in the country who hasn’t googled the president’s name and found out what it means.
After the snickering their minds will turn to The Homosexual Act. Unable to resist its terrible attraction, once the doughty, shining American youth will all turn homosexual.
Soon America’s classrooms will be churning forth more Santorum than an English public school or the original Olympics.
Rick Santorum, parfait knight of the homosexual cause. /snark
/snark
WereBear
Dr. Justin Frank, author of Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, diagnosed W with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And in terms of how they deal with other people, it’s really a “six of one, half a dozen of the other” situation. They are both empathy deficits. The fact that Bush had a “daddy problem” and did things to try and get his father’s anger or approval (and that he didn’t care which) makes me agree more with Dr. Frank.
But what he did for the Evangelicals was give them a “rock star.” I suppose you have not ever been one a Born Again yourself, or spent time in that milieu? For a great many, they cannot participate in common human culture; they get a censored imitation of it. From Christian Rock to the Left Behind series, they can only enjoy pale shadows of the real thing.
To have one of their own running for President; yes, they were thrilled! And dropped what little discernment they do practice right out the window.
sloan
Every writer in America must be in on the Santorum Surge joke.
I love it.
wrb
@sloan:
My take on it was a joke but I think it could actually describe a real problem for him with some fundies.
Do they really want a candidate whose elevation will cause kids to think of such things?
Gex
They’re just playing a form of musical chairs, aren’t they? Whoever is on top when the music stops wins the nomination. We know when the music will be stopping, it will be interesting to see where the players stand at that time.
AA+ Bonds
I’d appreciate a link or citation for the claim in bold, please? because the latest poll I’ve seen (from PPP) had this vote split something like five or six ways, with Ron Paul taking the largest percentage of that group and the top line results for the Des Moines Register poll don’t necessarily indicate that Santorum is in the lead among born-again Christians
sloan
@wrb: Yeah, you know the way they think is that kids can only be gay if they learn about it, and googling the Surging Santorum could result in exposure to The Homosexual Agenda.
It must be hard to be a flaming homophobe these days.
AA+ Bonds
I mean, mistermix, that would be a large claim to make without evidence, that the Evangelical vote has gone from a six-way split with Ron Paul in the lead and Mitt Romney in second to Santorum “tying up” that vote, so I’m assuming you’re looking at some other story that uses those poll results to show that?
Because the story you linked to doesn’t show that as far as I can tell, it just has top line results for whether or not a respondent considers him/herself “born again”
Bubblegum Tate
@McJulie:
Well, they really thought he was one of them. And on that, I agree with them: He really was one of them. If you take Bush out of politics, he’s still gonna be a fundie.
All winger pols have to suck up to the fundies; it’s a constituency they can’t afford to wholesale piss off these days. But compare, for example, McCain’s obvious pandering in this area to Bush. Bush talked that talk because that’s what he was. He genuinely was a fundie. And that’s all fundies need; if they perceive a guy as “one of us,” then tribalism trumps all.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH HA HA HA HA
AA+ Bonds
@Bubblegum Tate:
Bush is a Graham-ite New Evangelical, not a fundamentalist. It’s one of the reasons he was acceptable to the party at large.
It helps to know a little bit about the people you’re trashing