Time to Go: Rick Santorum Missed His Cue to Exit Stage Right

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:12 pm

Whatever happened to Rick Santorum, the once great white hope of the Religious Right? We hear a lot about other Religious Right favorites, like Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, but Santorum? Zip. Even Donald Trump gets more front-page time with Evangelicals than Rick “Don’t Hate on the Crusades” Santorum.

Charisma News took a look at Santorum the other day – and you have to shine a light pretty brightly to find him back there at the tail end of 15 remaining candidates – pointing out that “In the last presidential primary, he won 11 primaries. Now, he’s in 12th place.”

Though this little soldier for Christ appeared on Fox News the other day “to face the ‘all star’ panel of Bret Baier, Steve Hayes, Juan Williams, and Charles Krauthammer,” Charisma News says “This time, Santorum is essentially a forgotten candidate.”

Charisma News looked for something good to say about Santorum, but all they can find to say is that Santorum has stayed out of “recent personal attacks” between Republican candidates, which is pretty much what Santorum told the Fox News gang.

You can watch the interview, but it is as painful to watch as it was obviously painful for Baier & company to film.

As recommendations for the White House go, that’s not much. No explosions here. No fire. Not even a whimper of a misfire’s sizzle. Staying out of trouble does not present a substantive contribution to the ongoing dialogue about how to improve things for Americans. He may not be sleeping with his fellow Republicans outside of wedlock, something that seems to be all the rage among family values types, but that isn’t an electable quality.

Sure, he told folks in West Tennessee yesterday that,

“I know there are a lot of people right now looking, who are looking for someone new, a fresh face, in Washington and someone who can shake things up. Here’s what I’m going to say to that: Commander in chief is not an entry-level position.

“America has seen the consequences, and they’re only going to get worse unless we have strong leadership that reasserts America as a country that can make sure that our people are safe and that we have a peaceful world.”

He said, just to demonstrate how completely pedestrian his thinking is,

“I think what Kim Davis did in standing up for her constitutional rights is what more Americans need to do. We have to stop being told that just because five [justices] say this is the law, when they do so unconstitutionally, then we have to stand up for our rights.”

Which makes no sense, because it IS constitutional, and it is constitutional because the people the Constitution decided would make that ruling, made that ruling: the Supreme Court. If we want gross ignorance, we can get it from Mike Huckabee, who at least invents his own legal system to surround his ignorance.

Of course, Santorum was in a general store, because unlike Trump or Sanders, he can’t fill up an arena. And the trouble is, there was no sign of strong leadership with Santorum in that room, just the voice of a guy whimpering his last breath as he goes down in defeat – again.

And to be honest, it is easy to forget he was ever in the race. Santorum calls what has gone on between his fellow candidates a “food fight” but that “food fight” is keeping people like Donald Trump in the news. Perhaps rather than pointing fingers at the other kids in the lunch room, Santorum could interject something useful – and adult – into the conversation.

So far, he has failed to do that. He saw Greta Van Susteren on Fox News to whine about Religious Freedom. Fine. All 15 remaining Republican candidates do that. He hates the Iran deal. Fine, all Republican candidates hate the Iran deal. And he’s a NASCAR fan. Wow. Super.

He should be glad Romney isn’t running. He doesn’t have to worry about his rain gear being made fun of.

Yay?

The biggest news Santorum has had all week has been this:

And frankly, what does that do for me in my state, or you, or for my friends and family elsewhere?

It could be that Santorum has been forgotten for a reason, and it’s the same reason he will join Bobby Jindal, George Pataki and Lindsey Graham in the second-tier debate Wednesday: he has nothing useful to contribute to the discussion. It is just a shame it has taken Republicans this long to figure that out.

Rick Perry is gone. Perry had a higher average ranking than Santorum according to CNN. The debate, for Rick Sanatorum, is a meaningless anti-climax. All that is left to say is that Rick Santorum missed his cue to exit stage right, and it’s time to go.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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