Santorum Urges GOP to reach "left out" working class
Former Pennsyvlania Sen. Rick Santorum tells delegates his primary campaign showed the way for the GOP to reach working-class voters.
Santorum Urges GOP to reach "left out" working class
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
TAMPA, Fla. – Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum clearly has not moved beyond his loss in the Republican presidential race.
Judging by his remarks to the state delegation to the GOP convention Thursday morning, Santorum is still working through the stages of grief. He spent a great deal of time reminiscing about the successes of his primary insurgency, and arguing that his campaign showed the way for Republicans to reach working-class voters – though he did praise Mitt Romney and urge the delegates and party activists to work hard to carry the state.
“We ran a campaign that we won on a lot of fronts, and we rallied people and brought people out,” Santorum said. “It was an amazing effort, I have to tell you.”
He was the last of a series of not-Romney conservative candidates standing at the end of the primary season. Santorum dropped out of the race in mid-April when it became obvious he would be outspent by a huge margin and was in danger of losing the Pennsylvania primary to Romney.
“Do you realize that after we won three states, every primary election since then the exit polls were wrong, they were wrong in every one?” Santorum said. T “Everyone said we were going to lose or not win as much as we did. The worst was Mississippi and Alabama. The Drudge Report reported that Romney won, and we won…What happened? It was going on in state after state after state. Well, we didn't do any polling, we couldn't afford to do any polling, so we didn't really know what was happening. We just kept working.”
After it was over, Santorum said he was meeting with the Romney campaign to offer his help and found that its polling picked up a surge of support for him among voters who went to vote after 5 p.m.
“They were working people, people who couldn't get out of work, who were punching the clock,” Santorum said. “Those are the people we need to reach. They’re the key to this election….so I want to say we are going to dedicate the next two months to get out and talk about those messages…to do my best to try to communicate to those people who are feeling left out – all over the state of Pennsylvania. There’s a lot of ‘em.”
Comments (32)
Comment removed.- 2016 GOP nomination season has already started! First Christy, now Santorum talking about 2016 nomination.
Poor Romney! They just hate you too much.— Seed 
@sharky - Stop your b/s rhetoric. Democrats like Obama use the middle class as puns, all the while catering to the uber-wealthly and rich Union bosses.— Professor1982- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Pointing out a billionaire donor who has backed Obama and personally benefited from his policies is a "dumb response" for what reason? How is it any more inane that you simply repeating Koch brothers over and over? — jfar86
- Ok...now you're just manufacturing numbers. Yes, Koch Bros have billions but they are not spending it ALL on a conservative agenda. Let us now ask the question how much money/influence do the socialists' Rothschilds, Warburgs and Rockefeller's have to promote their socialist agenda protecting their massive empires??? And BTW these folks own controlling/voting stakes in Citi, Bank of England, Morgan, and the US Central Bank. Last time I checked, the "Fed" fraudulent monetary policy created the bubbles which led to the Great Depression and Great Recession ultimatly leading to the 1% gaining even more wealth???
Sharky - You're out of your league.— Professor1982 - Since when are Rothchilds,Rockefellers, etc socialists? The last I checked, unregulated banking and stock market policies created the Great Depression and Bush's recession, not the Fed. If you are a professor, you'd better go back to school. — mike l
- Love you righties, like Soros is some kind of money god. He isn't and the Democrats are not relying on him at all. You guys latch onto some catch phrase or name and beat it into the ground, even when it has no revelance. I know, you have to follow the gop glossary where you cannot write a response without mentioning "communist, socialist, Kenyan, Soros, birth certificate, community organizer, Chicago politics, etc." Otherwise, you'd be drummed out of the party. — mike l
- Comment removed.
- Typical socailist Sharky. Blind to the facts and using "Brownshirt" tactics to try and scare people. See I (meaning ME) make my life better....NOT GOVERNMENT. See that's why you are you doing what socialists like to do which is steal other people's money. Everyone deserves a saftey net, but people like you want that saftey net to be a way of life. — Professor1982
- No, people like sharky want jobs, jobs that the so-called "job creators" have not created after 11 yeas of Bush tax cuts. When the CEO's take away their livelihood, people need safety nets because the rich folks won't provide jobs. I say give them a choice: the rich can keep their cuts and pay more taxes on them or they can take that money and invest it in jobs and get the breaks that come with doing that. Right now, they don't care about the middle class and neith does the gop. — mike l
- BTW...Simplify the tax code by passing a flat tax code for individuals and companies. Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Pass term limits on ALL elected officials. Eliminate the corrupt central bank and allow the Treasury to run the economy rather than lining the pocket of bankers. — Professor1982
- I'm with you on this...all of it. But I would also add get rid of the tax loop holes too. — CommonSense in Philly
- It's not the "left out" people that Greg Stillson, I mean Rick Santorum, is in touch with it's the "far right" gang.— richojr
- test— Professor1982
- They want to reach out to the very people whose throats they'll cut if the GOP wins the election, and the sad part is that most of those people are fact-free enough to believe all their lies.— EdgarX
- Groups like the "birthers" aren't left out by the GOP. The birthers either don't know or understand that Obama could have born in Russia, but the immigrations laws in place during his birth would have made him an American citizen anyway.
Title 8 U.S.C. § 1409 paragraph (c) provides that children born abroad after December 24, 1952 to unmarried American mothers are U.S. citizens, as long as the mother has lived in the U.S. for a continuous period of at least one year at any time prior to the birth.
The text of the Constitution does not define what is meant by natural born: in particular it does not specify whether there is any distinction to be made between persons whose citizenship is based on jus sanguinis (parentage) and those whose citizenship is based on jus soli (birthplace).
Yet Gingrich, Limbaugh, Santorum, Trump and Romney pander to the birthers anyway. The people "left out" by the GOP are the moderate Republicans and Independent voters.— NorthPhillyTechie - Doesn't matter where Obama was born. He's as much a disgrace to the Presidency as Bush was. As soon as everyone realizes that, we can all move on. — Professor1982
- Lets see: Democrat Woodrow Wilson, with massive lobbying effort by Democrat Sen. Nelson Adrich (aka a ROCKEFELLER) whom Chairs the Senate Banking Committee passed the bill which allowed private bankers to take over the US economy via the new privatly run Central Bank. Newly created private Central Bank then creates bubble which causes the "roaring 20's" and leads to the stock market crash and Great Depression. Republican President Hoover losses White House and Democrat FDR institutes massive socialist programs which require Federal Govt to borrow massive amounts from private Central Bank making bankers billions in profits backed by raised taxes (Social Security). FDR socialist programs (which are supposed to represent secured taxpayer money) eventually are hollowed out by Governement using them as collateral for further loans by private Central Bank for socialist programs such as expanded entitlements, wars, etc... Democrat Bill Clinton repeals all of FDRs financial regulations and private Central Bank pours $9T in cheap liquidity into the market creating both DotCom bubble and subsequent Housing Bubble, meanwhile bankers earn nearly $28T in profits from the elimination of Financial Regs and expansion of Democratic Community Reinvestment Act (which ironically monetizes all that "bad money" into asset collateral known as Toxic Derivitives aka Bad Mortgages). Economy crashes again in 2007 and socialist Democrats YET AGAIN pass yet another far reaching socially invasive tax known as Obamacare to further steal from Americans what should be in private control...Health Care. Wake up America. Yes, Republicans have issues, but Democrats are outright criminal.— Professor1982
- And ehat has the republican party done while the Dems were supposedly doing all this? Getting rich, obviously. The repubs spent like drunken sailors during the Bush and Reagan years. Bush didn;t veto one pork-laden spending bill while the gop held the WH and Congress for six years. It is really funny how the conservatives got fiscal religion when McCain lost. Before that, "deficits don't matter." Funny how they all like Bush's government stimulus plan in 2001, ala Ryan, but complain that government, under Obama's stimulus, was bad. Then they all lined up with their hands out begging for Obama's stimulus cash. Cantor even held up one of those PGA title checks and crowed about how much money and jobs he brought to his district. Better expand your education, professor. — mike l
- Those people punching the clock not being able to get out of work are all jobs created by you repubs and your bosses, the 1%ers. They can't vote, however, as they all live in China.— oldliberal
- Give me a break. The 1% is made of mostly people and companies that support liberal programs b/c those liberal programs make them money. Investing in Govt is big biz expecially when you're returns are guarenteed by taxes on the people you claim to support! — Professor1982
- To the two morons up top debating @Professor1982 and @sharkymachine - neither party gives a rat's a** about you. Both parties sold out to corporations decades ago. Until we Americans who are 37th in the world in math take back our country and vote the scum out it really doesn't matter which party has the power.— MrBigDizzle
- Mr. Big Dizzle - If you read the posts in their entirety, you'd realize that is what I am saying. — Professor1982
- One party represents the wealthiest Americans. The other represents government union workers. No one reprsents the remaining 80%+ of Americans.— robtpenn
- Cherish this moment folks... It'll be the only time a republican will acknowledge anyone but the rich and business. Mittens is known for his rhetoric and lies. The GM Plant closing and Obama's removal of work requirements for welfare. Both were lies. But, this is also the party that won't be dictated by fact checkers.— PotteryPete
- How can this party talk about the working class when they are nominating a guy who believes union factory jobs SHOULD be outsourced if they can make rich people money.— mick-of-the-moment
- You mean like GE, which donated millions to Obama, only to out source its entire Xray program to China and shed tens of thousands of US jobs to China?
Think before you post.— Professor1982 - You mean like Bain Capital which bought up American companies, ran them into the ground, forced other companies to buy their assets, then cut thousands of American jobs? Bain forced an office suppy outfit to go out of business, then forced it to sell its inventory to Staples (the only business Romney seems to speak of as being successful)at greatly reduced costs, furtherwrecking it whiel Romney and Bain made a bundle. Practice what you teach, professor: THINK. — mike l
- @Professor---Obama accepts donations from a company that outsourced jobs, so he endorses the move? He has repeatedly called for tax breaks for companies that do not outsource. The Mitt Romney LIFE is outsource the jobs use the profits to make rich people richer. The people who object are called socialists who do not "understand" America. If America means using slave labor to produce the products in China (make no mistake about it Chinese labor has no rights, no ability to vote) and U.S. banks and laws to store and protect the profits, that is not exceptionalism, it is feudalism. So explain once again how ANOTHER tax cut for the wealthy will produce the 500,000 jobs a month Brigham Young's bishop claims should be emerging.— mick-of-the-moment
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Inquirer staff writer Thomas Fitzgerald blogs about national politics.
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Politics Writer
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
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