Rick Santorum is a Republican Barack Obama

Mar 2, 2012 by Dennis C

There has been a lot of back and forth, arguing and questioning as to which of the candidates for the Republican nomination is the most conservative. I don’t really know for sure and frankly, don’t really care. I have my eye on the ball. What is really important in this election is the defeat and removal from office of Barack Obama. This country simply cannot afford four more years of him and we need a candidate who can beat him. As to how conservative each candidate is, they are all most certainly more conservative than President Obama.

However, this opinion piece, as the title suggests, it is about Rick Santorum. He is most insistent that he is the true conservative and of the four candidates, clearly the most conservative one. I don’t know for sure and, again, don’t rally care. For argument’s sake, let’s concede that Santorum is the most conservative one. In fact, I’ll go to the ultimate extreme and allow that the former Senator is the most conservative person EVER BORN. That may or may not be true but, it makes my point.

Now that we have established his uber conservative credentials, can we set that aside for a moment and look at all of his other qualifications to be the POTUS? And they are (insert the sounds of crickets here). That’s right. His real qualifications for this job are nonexistent.

Let’s look at his history with a little objectivity, which very few conservatives seem to want to do. Does he have any governmental executive experience? By that I mean has he been a governor of a state or even a mayor of a city and been in charge of a governmental entity? No, not for so much as a single day. Does he have any business management or ownership experience? Absolutely none. Does he have any private sector experience at all worth mentioning? Again, none. What leadership ability has he ever exhibited or been called on to perform? None that anyone has been able to find. Clearly, if you set aside his claim to conservatism, what does he have? Actually, nothing. He has been in Washington virtually his entire adult life where he was able to avoid any significant contribution of any kind. Piling up a record of mediocrity that would be hard to accomplish without trying to do so.

He was in the US House at age 32 and then, in 1994 he ran for and won office to the US Senate. His record in both the House and the Senate is one of minimal accomplishment, no real leadership and at best, he was, and this is the polite word, an average member. In reality he was a mediocrity and the people of Pennsylvania apparently grew tired of it and sent him packing with an 18 point whipping by a B-list Democrat in 2006. And this is the resume of a President? Let’s get serious. What do you suppose Barack Obama and his professional smear committee of Chicago Democrats is going to do to this guy if he does win the nomination? He will be lucky to garner 40 % of the vote.

Conservative Republicans need to get over this belief they seem to have that The One is so vulnerable that any Republican is going to beat him and reclaim the White House. Sorry folks, it just aint so. The One has demonstrated a total inability to govern but he is a good campaigner. Plus, keep in mind, that conservatives and liberals do not decide these elections. They pretty much cancel each other out which leaves it to independents to decide the election of a President. And given what Santorum has said about religion, marriage and what adults do in the privacy of their own home, even a heterosexual married couple, will make independents run from this guy as if he was Typhoid Mary.

In 2008, America elected to the Presidency, an ideological extremist with no real qualifications for the job of any kind. I’m one of those who is still trying to find out what a community organizer is and how does that prepare someone to be President? Now, Republicans, at least some of them, are contemplating the exact same thing. Rick Santorum is a Republican Barack Obama. He may be ideologically preferable than others but his job, political and life experience screams unqualified at least as loudly as did Obama’s in ’08 and how did that work out?

We aren’t just electing someone to a position. We are electing someone to do a job. The person we elect has to be the head of and run the United States Government. Has to be able to work with both Houses of Congress and members of both political parties. Probably Obama’s greatest weakness. He also has to deal with the military and intelligent communities. Set policy for our dealings with other countries for foreign affairs and the list goes on and on. Do you really see Rick Santorum having anything in him to lead you to believe he is ready for this job? If so, please point it out because even he hasn’t tried to make that argument. Time for people to start voting with their heads and not their hearts. Too many people did that in ’08 and look where we are.