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Ari Fleischer On CNN: I’m Ready To Say Santorum Could Gain The GOP Nomination

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On Monday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper invited a panel consisting of former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Red State’s Erick Erickson, and political communications expert Hilary Rosen to discuss Rick Santorum‘s comments regarding Barack Obama‘s “phony theology” and attitude towards man’s relationship to the environment.

RELATED: Rick Santorum Goes After Obama On Faith: His Agenda Is Based On ‘Phony Theology’

Fleischer felt that Santorum had meant to attack Obama’s ideology — which can and should be fair game in political discourse — but that we should respect people’s theology and Santorum used some words that he shouldn’t have and probably will not use again in the future.

Erickson felt that it’s not the media focusing on Santorum’s theology so much as Santorum himself making theology an issue instead of focusing on things like jobs and the economy. “Leave the theology to a preacher,” he advised, suggesting that perhaps Santorum has a touch of “Gingrichitis.”

Rosen agreed with Erickson, adding that Santorum hasn’t given much attention to, say, his potentially popular tax plan.

Fleischer, however, believes that Santorum has energized and connected with the social wing of the Republican Party to the point that he could still very well nab the nomination.

Have a look, via CNN:

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  • Anonymous

    Let me be the first to call the GOP nomination a RINO.

  • http://twitter.com/st3alth213 st3alth213

    IF THIS HAPPENS. THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OUR SOCIETY….  http://tiny.cc/ofd35      WHY IS HE ALLOWED TO SAY THIS STUFF ON TV? 

  • Anonymous

    How many wheels are left on the GOP clown car?

    If Rick Santorum becomes the republican nominee, that’s all of the evidence I’d need to prove to myself that this election is COMPLETELY fixed for Obama by the republicans.

  • Anonymous

    Ari Fleischer, Ah Yes,another towering intellectual giant on the right.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TWK2YYJTTIDLZIVV7NKZM23Z6Q Tyler

    I think it’s time we start recruiting some new blood to run in the primary. I’m nervous about how this election season is going.  

  • Anonymous

    I’m ready to say if Rick Santorum gains the GOP nomination, they’re going to lose many young voters for a very long time.

  • sid_id

    And women voters as well.

  • http://twitter.com/juvus juvus

    The Republicans seem to be more than happy to win the battle and lose the war. Fine by me.  Nominate Santorum and get all those old people who fear gays to get out there and vote. and than what. Those old people die.  The republican party affiliation is 25%. Social issues is not going to get them to go up.  

    they may dislike Ron Paul because he is not willing to bomb a 3rd world country every other Sunday, but he is the one guy bringing in new people.  

    If the Republican party chooses to go out in a blaze of glory I say let them. I will provide the fire by not voting for Rick Santorum in November. lol

  • Anonymous

    Well at least Santorum isn’t a total phony. I think he will lose 44 states but at least the republicans can say they voted on some sort of principal. So if Romney gets the nomination and only loses 38 states whats the difference? Im amazed that Santorum may pull this off. If Romney doesn’t get the nomination it will be one of the biggest upsets in primary history. Santorum was polling at 1% 6 months ago! He has no money, Romney had it all and if he’s having a hard time beating Santorum there is no way in hell he can beat Obama.

  • Anonymous

    Do these people do math at all?

    Doing general poll numbers from Michigan Santorum will get 11 electoral votes and Romney will get 10.  Gingrich and Paul can fight for the last 9.

    Romney will win Arizona, a winner take all state, garnering 29 delegates.

    Let’s look at the math and not the pundits.

    Under RNC rules, the delegate count builds slowly: just 15% before Super Tuesday, March 6; 19% through Super Tuesday (brings you to 34%); 17% in the rest of March (brings you to 51%); with 48% in April, May and June (21%, 12%, 15%). 

  • Anonymous

    Ari nearly destroyed Komen. Now he’s working on the GOP. Dude is tireless.

  • Anonymous

    I am befuddled to say the least how santorum is leading and could beat romney…yes befuddled,confused,wondering…This person brought a dead baby to his home so his other kids to say good bye..he believes woman should be barefoot and pregnant like his wife,who I understand was pretty wild before he converted her and made her bear all those kids…Hey thats their business but he should not be the nominee of Republican or for that matter any party for President…Thousands thought that way when he lost almost in a landslide for his reelection in Pa. for the Senate…So now we are letting the far right evangilicals dictate to the rest of us…Here comes the obama landslide.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t agree with Santorum on anything but the Republicans might have a better chance of beating Obama than Romney does. I think Santorum does a better chance of appealing to people in Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

    Romney has a hard time connecting with working class people from my observations. Even when he tells us stories about his dad, it seems very unnatural. Spitting nails into boards or selling paint while going on a honeymoon makes for an interesting story but it’s not something most people could relate to.

    Santorum’s stories might not be as cool as Romney’s stories but they’d stories working class people could relate to. Unlike Romney, Santorum had a working class upbringing so talking to working class people comes natural to him.

    From my observation of the electoral map, most tossup states seem like states that would be inclined to go with Santorum over Romney.

  • Anonymous

    Are you
    serious Ari Fleischer, Santorum the next POTUS, a man that has to wear his name on his
    sweater (Rick Santorum) like a kindergarten boy, so people will know who he is? Please………Santorum is such an colossal embarassment!

    Santorum
    has had his day in the “Media sun” and now it is time for Republicans
    to get back to the grown up table and get behind Mitt Romney the manly,
    intelligent conservative and next President.

  • Anonymous

    Please, Please, Please, let Santorum win the GOP nomination.

  • Anonymous

    Why is this piece of shit Erickson on tv?

  • Hout Bosques

    Yeah okay, but this is ALL 3 commentators agreeing, from different POVs. Bottom line: it’s February & already it’s a done deal in November. 

  • Hout Bosques

    But you’re not saying that nominating Romney gains them back. The very fact that Santorum is out there saying these things is pushing Mittens into saying things the Obama campaign is not going to let the public forget into election day. That is, while it’s true that younger voters & women voters were already inclined  to vote Obama, & while it’s also true that Santorum is forcing more independent younger & women voters to Obama, I’m not convinced that Mittens can do much to bring many of them back – & more: I’m convinced the  base of the GOP won’t allow him to do any of the things he’d have to do to bring them back.

  • Anonymous

    The GOP has been in trouble from the start with any and all candidates that have been put forward! They have taken turns with one meteoric rise and fiery crash after another. Santorum’s foot in mouth illness will keep him from winning the election if he gets nominated. Romney effort to please whoever he is speaking to at the time and off shore accounts will keep him from winning if he gets nominated. Newt has been newtered but could rise and then fall again. Paul is/was considered extreme from the outset can’t even give him a chance for a rise to fall. Any viable Republican is sitting out until 2016 to avoid this circus despite the retoric that “Obama must go”. Then they can say “see what we need is a Republican to do the job” after 4 more years of obstruction in an effort to make the POTUS ineffectual. What we will see is another term of no cooperation or bipartisan agreement. So President Obama wins by default and the Republican Tea Party continues their great…………ah…………um……… accomplishments from the previous 4yrs.

  • Anonymous

    Hilary rephrased what was said a week ago, candidates tack towards their
    base in the primaries and to the center in the general but the whackjobs
    on the right forced Mitt to tack to a point of no return 

    Romney is writing a new episode of Survival, throwing oneself from a helicopter onto uncharted non-navigable waters and trying to find the way back to center island.

    He’s toast, Limbaugh has another centrists scalp to claim

  • Anonymous

    Ari Fleischer really does come off as rather not-very-bright now that he is on CNN and has to think and speak for himself. When he was WH press secretary, at least he had Karl Rove and Karen Hughes there to give him his talking points and marching orders. Now he’s just blah.

  • Anonymous

    These remarks are off the mark.  Gallup says that Santorum does well with women – http://cnsnews.com/news/article/women-prefer-santorum-romney-10-point-margin-says-gallup
    And the GOP wins America over when it runs a socially conservative candidate -
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577227694132901090.html

  • sid_id

    My remarks are my opinion and not intended to reflect what Gallup or any other poll or survey may say. I do not make decisions or base my opinions on what the current or popular trend might be. I do not read or participate in any surveys or polls either, but thanks for the effort.     

  • Anonymous

    That explains why you go around making definitive statements as if they are based on fact when they are nothing more than your own uninformed guesses! 

    Never let the facts get in the way of wishful thinking, lol!…

  • sid_id

    You are the one who assumed that it was a definitive statement as if it was based on facts, I freely admitted that it was nothing more but an uninformed guess, hence my remarks are my opinion. It would behoove you to maybe read someones reply before shooting off at the mouth.

  • Anonymous

    And it would behoove you to actually proofread your own posts apparently…

  • sid_id

    Whatever your say, Huckleberry.

    ZWF0IHNoaXQ=

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