Obama campaign contemplates ascendent Santorum

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The Obama campaign is digging deeper into Rick Santorum's record, preparing for a potential recalibration of their laser-like focus on Mitt Romney.

After months of campaign advisers and surrogates aiming their fire solely at Romney - who they cast both as a Wall Street sympathizer and a serial flip-flopper - the first signs of a shift to Santorum are emerging.

This week, the Obama campaign's Pennsylvania state director, Bill Hyers, sent an email to state supporters pointing out that Santorum "bragged that he was a tea partier before there was a Tea Party." He called Santorum's views "as out of touch as they are memorable."

The email invited Pennsylvanians to "share their recollections of Rick Santorum's record."

One campaign official said in light of the current state of the race, the Obama campaign has to be prepared.

"Given that Sen. Santorum has won more states than Gov. Romney, it would be political malpractice not to adjust our strategy to take [Santorum] into account," said the official.

Another campaign official says there is no shift in the ultimate expectation that Romney will be the eventual nominee, however. Still, the official said, Santorum's wins in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota, have them "paying attention."

[nearl451]

"Obama campaign contemplates ascendent Santorum".....

....but then realizes all they have to do is sit back and watch Santorum exhibit his "brilliance" and witness his campaign imploding. After all no one can scare away sensible moderates better than Santorum.

[P0STING_AWAY]

by truthisaB February 18, 2012 12:28 AM EST
I am not a Rick fan but face it Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to the USA and the future children will curse and spit on the graves of all who supported him.
==============================================================
I personally would like you to take ONE day off from your
daily crack-smoking regimen.

[eightsigma]

That's the great thing about elections. We'll see how most voters think Obama's been doing.

[erpicferl]

rick is a fruitcup. no worried president.

[eightsigma]

More likely Obama will be seen as having saved us from another Great Depression. And Bush will get some credit for finally making some good decisions at the end of his Presidency.

[rtup]

If Santorum wins nomination, I can see Obama's 1st headline: "Santorum Wants Conterceptives Outlawed!" As dumb as this might be, it will scare women not to vote for the GOP!! WE LOSE!

[RobAla]

President Obama has to find something negative about others, because he CAN NOT run on his own record. Let's look at the list of achievements during the first 3 years of President Obama and fellow progressives:

1) He lied 8 times in promises to televise the health care discussions openly on CSPAN.
2) He made deals giving one premium health care plan to union members (supporters) and another to the rest of the country.
3) He stood by and allowed the House and Senate to buy health care votes using taxpayer money.
4) He allowed the health care bills to be fashioned behind closed doors and be filled with political favors. This disaster of a health care law increases the cost of health care by imposing fees on medical devices (like pacemakers). He and they took over the nations health care by the federal government - most Americans did not want this extreme action - and still do not. This horrible law will cause the majority of Americans to have higher health care cost in rising premiums. We already can not afford the size federal government that we currently have, with a $15 trillion national debt. It imposes $billions of unfunded mandates on struggling states to provide greater Medicaid coverage. 27 states are suing the federal government over this nonsense, as they don't have the money to pay for this. Businesses are not hiring because of the additional cost PER EMPLOYEE that is caused by this law.
5) President Obama has continued at least a 8% unemployment rate for three years.
6) He irresponsibly overspent 100s of billions of dollars the US didn't have on bailouts (President Bush started it and President Obama accelerated it) and bogus stimulus packages. The worthless 111th Congress (led by Democrat Nancy Pelosi) was too busy screwing up the nation to do their job. They never established a budget for the nation in 2010, and by law they are to do this.
7) President Obama has behaved in the most partisan manner of any recent President, after promising bipartisanship. He has arrogantly trashed everyone who has not agreed with his socialist agenda - even the Supreme Court.
8) Instead of securing the border and enforcing federal immigration laws, the President has made war on Arizona Americans as they attempt to protect themselves from an invasion of illegal immigrants.
9) The President's man, AG Holder, dropped his case against the Black Panthers who blatantly intimidated voters at the polls. Now, Holder may finally be kicked out over "Fast and Furious" - the program that sold guns to Mexican cartels, guns used to kill a US border agent.
10) This President has focused on an extremist agenda of "fundamentally transforming" the US from a democratic republic into a socialist democracy, instead of the millions without jobs. We are all witnessing the collapse of European socialist democracies, yet this does nothing to stop this President from pushing us down that road of disaster.
11) President Obama imposed a moratorium on drilling in the gulf, throwing thousands more out of work. One foreign oil company screwed up, and the President decided to punish other oil companies that have drilled responsibly for decades.
12) President Obama wanted the President Bush tax cuts to expire, which would have resulted in redirecting money away from the economy and pushing it into Washington. The President held on to this until he was forced to change by the pounding the Democrats took in the 2010 election. Still, he promises to increase taxes next year.
13) The President and other progressives in Congress have imposed oppressive additional expenses and regulations on private sector businesses that are crippling the private sector jobs market, while expanding the federal government and public sector jobs. Anyone with any economic sense knows that you need tax revenues from a healthy private sector jobs market to fund public sector expansions, and the money is just not there. Yet, President Obama wildly and irresponsibly continues to massively grow the federal government - hence an outrageous $15 trillion national debt.
14) With gas prices rising and projected to hit $4.00 a gallon by summer 2012, President Obama stops the Canadian pipeline deal that would reduce the US dependence on middle- eastern oil. His entire energy policy is idiotic, and leaves the US damaged.
15) In President Obama's 2012 budget, he never addressed serious issues threatening the future of the nation (like the fact that if Medicare and Social Security are not restructured, they both are projected to collapse by 2037). In fact, in the face of a staggering $15 trillion national debt - he proposed that we add another $trillion to it.

Just to name a few. The perfect word for President Obama is "irresponsible".

[nearl451]

Thanks for repeating this nonsense everywhere Rob. Don't know what we would do without it.

[jimbom121]

Perhaps the Obama team is on to something...