Would Santorum Have Beaten Obama?

[Redress]

Saw this question asked on TV today, and it got me thinking. There are a number of ways that a Santorum campaign would have significantly differed from a Romney campaign, and would have been the "true conservative" the far right was clammoring for. How likely do you think a Santorum win would have been if he had gotten the nomination?

 

[DashingAmerican]

Not a chance, the gap would have been even larger. The only republican that was in the primaries that could've beaten Obama was Herman Cain.

 

[Einzige]

He'd have lost by a larger margin. I'd give Obama North Carolina, and he'd hold Georgia to within low single-digits.

Santorum's only very conservative socially. He's an economic protectionist and probably to W. Bush's left on economics.

 

[Fiddytree]

I think you can pretty much count on the 47% comment to have been the least damaging comment possible between those two.

 

[Fiddytree]

Not a chance, the gap would have been even larger. The only republican that was in the primaries that could've beaten Obama was Herman Cain.

That political outsider stuff only works to a point.

 

[Anagram]

Saw this question asked on TV today, and it got me thinking. There are a number of ways that a Santorum campaign would have significantly differed from a Romney campaign, and would have been the "true conservative" the far right was clammoring for. How likely do you think a Santorum win would have been if he had gotten the nomination?

Extremely small. Unless Santorum somehow got Obama to make a major gaffe in the debates or something, Santorum would have probably lost be a larger margin than Romney. I don't think the differences would have been so great it would've tipped any state except North Carolina, or perhaps the more libertarian Montana. Obama would've probably won liberal-libertarian states like Colorado and New Hampshire by double digits.

 

[DashingAmerican]

That political outsider stuff only works to a point.

Yes, but he had good policies and was ahead of most others and in the running with the rest until the "affair accusations."

 

[waas]

Santorum's views were only appealing to the more conservative voters within the RNC. I have a hard time thinking he'd win any moderate Republicans or Independents.

 

[Einzige]

Herman Cain would've gotten smoked. This is my map (the colours are flipped to match their historical and foreign connotations on Dave Leip's Atlas):

 

[DashingAmerican]

Herman Cain would've gotten smoked. This is my map (the colours are flipped to match their historical and foreign connotations on Dave Leip's Atlas):

View attachment 67139254

You obviously don't know much about the South East, Herman Cain would have carried the south east just because he was a republican. Your map is asinine.

Hell, he won the Alabama straw poll with 51% and he was FROM Ga so you can give him that one.

 

[BayToBay]

Saw this question asked on TV today, and it got me thinking. There are a number of ways that a Santorum campaign would have significantly differed from a Romney campaign, and would have been the "true conservative" the far right was clammoring for. How likely do you think a Santorum win would have been if he had gotten the nomination?

He would have lost by a wide margin.

 

[Einzige]

You obviously don't know much about the South East, Herman Cain would have carried the south east just because he was a republican. Your map is asinine.

McCain was also a Republican and also lost North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. The only reason I didn't give Georgia to Obama (Obama brought it to within six points in 2012) is because Cain's from the state.

EDIT:

Hell, he won the Alabama straw poll with 51% and he was FROM Ga so you can give him that one.

Uh... Cain has Alabama on my map. On the Atlas Forum, where I made my map, the Democrats are red and the Republicans are blue, as matches the international colours of left-wing and right-wing politics.

 

[Anagram]

In all but 3 general election polls during the primaries, Rick Santorum did worse than Mitt Romney. I guess I don't know for sure if that would've continued throughout the election, but my guess is that it would.

Early/Mid 2012 statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2012 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Haha.
Yea right.

 

[Helix]

Huntsman might have won. Santorum, probably not.

 

[Einzige]

Huntsman might have won. Santorum, probably not.

I seriously doubt it. Huntsman's a solid candidate on paper, and may have been able to keep Obama under 300 electoral votes, but he doesn't have much of a presence at all.

 

[Carjosse]

Hell no, the Republicans would have lost every undecided voter because who wants for the insane ultra-conservative unless they are already are.

 

[DashingAmerican]

McCain was also a Republican and also lost North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. The only reason I didn't give Georgia to Obama (Obama brought it to within six points in 2012) is because Cain's from the state.

EDIT:



Uh... Cain has Alabama on my map. On the Atlas Forum, where I made my map, the Democrats are red and the Republicans are blue, as matches the international colours of left-wing and right-wing politics.

I apologize, I misread the map.

McCain was a watered down moderate.

Also, most of the primaries were held before Cain really hit his stride.

Alas, what good is speculation. I personally feel Cain would have held a MUCH better chance at beating Obama than Santorum, whose insanity started to show later on.

 

[Carjosse]

the Democrats are red and the Republicans are blue, as matches the international colours of left-wing and right-wing politics.

Finally someone uses the proper colours. Out networks made fun of that fact with saying it looks like the Liberals have won a solid majority in the South and Mid West while the West Coast and the North are voting Conservative and there seems to be some NDP sates scattered about because the swing states were orange on the map they were using.

 

[Einzige]

Cain was, essentially, a joke candidate. His "7-7-7" plan had no backing at all from creditable economists, and his entire campaign smacked of being basically an effort at self-aggrandizement. I consider my map actually very conservative; it's possible Cain could've had a total meltdown had he actually won the nomination and lost many states that I gave him.

 

[DashingAmerican]

Cain was, essentially, a joke candidate. His "7-7-7" plan had no backing at all from creditable economists, and his entire campaign smacked of being basically an effort at self-aggrandizement. I consider my map actually very conservative; it's possible Cain could've had a total meltdown had he actually won the nomination and lost many states that I gave him.

It was actually 9-9-9 and I thought it would have probably had to be 11-11-11. I thought he would have done very well, but all we can really do is disagree with one another.

 

[TheDemSocialist]

Nope not even close...

 

[Redress]

Much as I like my almost neighbor Herman Caine, could we take that discussion elsewhere please.

 

[radcen]

Saw this question asked on TV today, and it got me thinking. There are a number of ways that a Santorum campaign would have significantly differed from a Romney campaign, and would have been the "true conservative" the far right was clammoring for. How likely do you think a Santorum win would have been if he had gotten the nomination?

I think Santorum would have done worse than Romney. The only people clamoring for a far right conservative is/was the far right.

 

[Redress]

A couple things to think about:

1) One of Romney's problems is that people just did not much like him. Santorum was very likable.

2) Another problem of Romney's is that he was seen as a flip flopper on issues. Santorum would not have had that problem.

3) It would have been much harder to paint Santorum as an out of touch rich guy.