The Necropolitan Sentinel

I’m inclined to believe that the Santorum Surge is a real phenomenon, and not a trick of the light. Now that Newt has imploded rather spectacularly from the scrutiny of being the GOP’s Not-Romney, Santorum appears to be the latest Not-Romney. Today, right bloggers are covering his 2006 endorsement of RomneyCare in Massachusetts. That makes it very difficult for Newt to be Not-Romney, though predictably Newt will state that he endorsed the aims of RomneyCare—100% insurance coverage for citizens of the Bay State—though not the means, and that is simply a nuance too far for most people who were trying to look at New Newt as someone different from Old Newt in substance as well as packaging. It’s certain that fiscal conservative bellwether Paul Ryan had seen enough of Newt.

Ron Paul is just a wack job.

My critique of Santorum from the beginning has been that he’s too closely associated with social conservative issues during an election year that’s about as much concerned with the economy as an election can get. The last election was about the economy to a large degree as well, but then the media was complicit in covering up just how completely the financial meltdown could be traced to congressional politics, when Obama was a Senator. Most of the resistance to vilified outgoing President Bush the Younger’s repeated calls for stricter oversight had come from Democrats, though Republicans who deserve to be pink-slipped were also recalcitrant, and this was a strong point in McCain’s favor, that he had backed the Bush administration’s critique of the GSEs. A functioning press corps would have waded into the issues and discovered the insider trading of Congressmen and -women, the role of Fannie and Freddie in inflating the housing bubble, the fact that Congress and regulators had failed miserably to provide any kind of meaningful oversight, and all the rest, but it was much more convenient to their hopey changey agenda to blame it all on the banks. As anyone who’s reading this is likely to be well aware, that’s not the only helpful incuriosity that the MSM displayed toward facts that might prove damaging to candidate Obama.

Now, the question is whether social con Santorum can garner enough Not-Romney momentum to knock Romney off the perch. He doesn’t come with the kind of historical baggage that Newt does, but for the vast majority of independent voters, he may look too socially conservative to provide an attractive alternative to Obama. On the other hand, it’s possible that after four years of Obama there are enough people who are desperate to turn the economy around that they’re willing to set aside their distaste for a social conservative agenda in order to nominate a candidate who comes bundled with an effectual fiscal agenda. Yes, I know that Jay Cost believes that there aren’t really very many Not-Romney voters, but then again nobody’s made the argument that fiscal conservatism is inextricably tied to common-sense social policies that respect tradition, and that the economy’s funk is directly correlated with the excesses of the liberal social agenda. The DoJ’s ham-handed attempt to tilt the field for Obama may just push more people into that point of view, but it’s going to require Santorum learning how to go over the heads of the MSM, and that requires a level of stagecraft that I haven’t yet seen from him.

Anyway, Stacy’s in Iowa covering this most interesting and most recent development in the GOP race, so look to him and his trusty pink camera for your coverage needs.

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