Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stocks, Bitcoin and Crypto Markets Breaking Bad on Donald Trump Pump - 21st Nov 24
Gold Price To Re-Test $2,700 - 21st Nov 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks: This Is My Strong Warning To You - 21st Nov 24
Financial Crisis 2025 - This is Going to Shock People! - 21st Nov 24
Dubai Deluge - AI Tech Stocks Earnings Correction Opportunities - 18th Nov 24
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Santorum To Economic Collapse

ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2012 Jan 08, 2012 - 07:42 AM GMT

By: LewRockwell

ElectionOracle

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleDave Trotter writes: And now, a completely obvious prediction: Rick Santorum, the latest "anybody but Romney" Flavor of the Month, will see his numbers collapse unceremoniously before the South Carolina primary – just like Bachmann, Perry, Cain, and Gingrich before him.


After all, if Gingrich’s conservative bona fides weren’t sufficient for limited-government conservative voters, even casual scrutiny of Santorum’s record of big government spending should prove to be particularly damaging with the same group. While ensconced in senatorial power, Santorum voted for No Child Left Behind, the $1 Trillion prescription drug benefit, and the Iraq war, for starters. And like Gingrich, Santorum's also "not a lobbyist."

What will undoubtedly offend evangelicals, upon discovery, is that Santorum notoriously supported the "pro-choice" Arlen Specter for reelection against the much more conservative, pro-life primary challenger Pat Toomey in 2004. Some have argued that Toomey’s credible primary challenge against establishment incumbent Specter was the precursor to the rise of Tea Party candidates nationally. Given the chance to buck the Republican establishment as exemplified by George W. Bush, and throw in behind upstart Toomey, Santorum chose instead to scuttle the infancy of limited-government conservative revolution.

Santorum, it should be clear, is an establishment man – just like Romney.

Before he was summarily ejected from office in 2006, Santorum doubled down on George W. Bush’s notion of "compassionate conservatism." In a long-belated response to Hillary Clinton’s controversial book It Takes a Village, which offends by promoting secular statist dominion over American children at the expense of the family, Santorum wrote It Takes a Family – promoting religious-statist intervention into American family life – all to promote an eerily similar "common good," or as others have described it, "Communitarian Conservatism."

Rick Santorum is no Tea Party candidate, nor does his record reflect any allegiance to limited government principles.

Of course one must also award War Party credit where it’s due: amidst a cluttered primary field of foaming interventionist neoconservatives, Santorum’s hyperbolic fear mongering over Iran’s infantile nuclear ambitions distinguished him during the debates – as an even more enthusiastic warmonger than most. He’s seemingly never met a potential international conflict that he didn’t embrace – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Iran – and he’s also an outspoken proponent of the domestic police state, voting for the Patriot Act, its repeated reauthorization, as well as the formation of Big Sis.

In terms of foreign policy and the domestic security state, Santorum presents no significant differences from Romney – or Obama.

In the general election against Obama, however, Santorum’s prospects dim further. As an outspoken, big government "social conservative," Santorum stands very little chance of garnering support from liberals and independents. His foreign policy views won’t gain anti-war moderate, liberal, or otherwise independent supporters from Obama, as Ron Paul would. Considering Santorum’s shrill cries to launch yet another unconstitutional war with Iran, it’s inconceivable that Ron Paul supporters would support him as the Republican nominee, if Gary Johnson is available on the ballot as the Libertarian Party candidate.

Of course none of this matters after Iowa, where Santorum’s timely, inexplicable surge helped accomplish precisely the GOP establishment’s immediate desire: that Ron Paul not win the Iowa caucuses.

Nevertheless, as Ron Paul noted in his Iowa concession speech, only two frontrunners emerged from Iowa with sufficient strength to continue to prosecute a successful national campaign: Paul and Romney. Ron Paul raised $13 million during the fourth quarter of 2011, $5 million more than he raised in the third quarter and his fundraising shows no signs of abating.

Furthermore, despite officially coming in third in Iowa, Ron Paul is currently tied in the delegate count with Romney and Santorum, with seven "soft-pledged" delegates each. The Iowa caucus results are non-binding, meaning that delegates can ultimately support whomever they like, regardless the caucus results. Paul’s supporters who volunteered to be Iowa county delegates will play a direct role in determining how the state’s delegates are allotted, part of a larger Paul strategy to force a long nominating process by concentrating on caucus states. The race is far from over, and Ron Paul will have funds to compete until the convention.

Where will things go from here?

Two dynamics have proven consistent thus far, making some predictions easy. (1) Aversion to Mitt Romney will likely continue amongst Republican primary voters, leading to the incessant rotation of the "anybody but Romney" Flavors of the Month. (Santorum’s rise as the newest GOP Flavor of the Month, therefore, portends his imminent fall.) (2) The GOP establishment will continue to actively organize to prevent Ron Paul from winning state primary contests.

As a "social conservative," Santorum isn’t expected to do well in New Hampshire, and I’m betting that scrutiny of his record will render him obsolete as an option before South Carolina. So who will serve as the next "totally unexpected" GOP establishment spoiler, to enable a Romney victory in New Hampshire and relegate Paul to third? The likely and obvious candidate is Jon Huntsman, who skipped Iowa and is already getting mainstream press about "pulling a Rick Santorum."

New Hampshire still uses the same institutionally vulnerable Diebold electronic voting machines as in 2008, so the odds of GOP establishment chicanery are even higher than in Iowa. After all, the establishment that Ron Paul threatens remains firmly in control of the levers and dials of the pollsters and the voting machines.

If Huntsman indeed serves the role of Romney-enabler in New Hampshire, as the new-new Flavor of the Month for the soon-to-be deposed Santorum, expect for him to yield to yet another establishment candidate by South Carolina. Perhaps Perry makes a momentary resurgence?

If the GOP establishment has its ultimate wish fulfilled, each primary will winnow the field a touch further, never yielding a significant victory to Ron Paul – and more importantly, never forcing an acknowledgement of the public’s war-weariness – until in the very end, the "inevitability" of Mitt Romney is finally "proven" – through an exhaustive process of elimination.

In this vision, Romney v. Obama, the establishment presents to the American electorate the false "choice" between virtual mirror images: banker-owned warmonger R and banker-owned warmonger D. The military-industrial complex, big insurance, big pharma, big oil corporatists, and other crony collectivists will rejoice, regardless the outcome.

The American people will win more of the same in this story: more war, more debt, more groping, more surveillance, a former world reserve currency, and the ruins of a bankrupt empire.

The onus is apparently on Ron Paul supporters alone to be the monkey wrench in the establishment machine that prevents Romney’s coronation.

Dave Trotter [send him mail] is a technical communications manager in Central Texas. Follow him on Twitter.

http://www.lewrockwell.com

© 2012 Copyright Dave Trotter - All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in