Politics

Joe Scarborough’s Rant against Rick Santorum

Joe Scarborough tells candidate Rick Santorum to shut-up about “the stupid side issues” saying,

If you want to debate those issues, let’s have a Bible study…but if you’re running for the President of the United States, talk about how you’re going to reform the tax system, how you’re gonna save entitlements, and how you’re going to bring jobs back to America. And if you can’t be focused enough to do that, go home!”

14 Comments

  • Christiane

    too late . . . those ‘side issues’ are now ‘out there’ in the media and they are what Santorum is being identified with . . . particularly those issues that affect women

    this is pleasing to ‘the base’

    this is also pleasing to the ‘opposition’

    Those ‘side issues’ are divisive and will separate voters into ‘pro’ or ‘con’ Santorum, in case he is the candidate chosen . . . and those ‘side issues’ will trump in importance anything that Santorum may have to say later concerning ‘jobs’, ‘tax reforms’

    a lot of women have already seen the extension of those ‘side issues’ in states like Texas, and now Virginia . . . and they are 51 percent of the vote

    I think the women of this country, as voters, will be decisive in the 2012 Presidential election.

  • Paul

    Actually, Scarborough’s right. Santorum isn’t running for Pastor of the United States of America. Talking about Obama’s theology is carefully styled rhetoric to rile up the base, and has no substance in the actual marketplace of ideas.

  • Mary

    Paul’s comment above is spot on. Santorum is acting as if he’s running for Bishop or to take over for Pat Robertson at the Christian Broadcast Network. Not a good way to win over the independents. He’s also alienating women of all political stripes and is only helping Obama’s reelection prospects by continuing his crazy religious rhetoric. Scarborough is correct on this one.

  • Bobby

    Santorum uses much of his website to address the non-social issues. Please visit the site if you are unsure of his beliefs and his plans on these issues. Rally after rally and talk show after talk show, he talks about manufacturing, jobs, cap and trade, health care, etc. He also talks about social issues. Scarborough is bothered by Santorum’s conviction on social issues.

    Is Santorum not supposed talk about social issues at all? He’s not trying to hide what he believes. What kind of leader would that be?

    • Paul

      I see what you’re saying, but to quote a man who will never be quoted again on this website, the great trumpeter, Lester Bowie…

      “Who is the better revolutionary? The guy who screams in the street carrying his sign and threatening to take out the president…the guy who gets carted off to jail after a few minutes, or the guy who quietly makes his way up the ladder until he can get in the president’s private quarters and dumps poison into the coffee?”

      This is the lesson that Santorum (and most of the modern GOP, honestly) has never bothered to learn. Gingrich wants to put people on the moon, Romney thinks that the country should be run with the 1% as the focus, and Santorum wants to be pope. And Ron Paul doesn’t want to be president.

  • Mary Moser

    Methinks that, while Santorum’s God-talk likely will be his political downfall, what he is saying needs to be said because this country needs Godly citizens even more than a Godly president.

  • Larry

    “…talk about how you’re going to reform the tax system, how you’re gonna save entitlements, and how you’re going to bring jobs back to America.”

    He makes a good point in general but the specifics listed in this quote cannot be done simultaneously. “Entitlements” are not, and they need to be eliminated not saved.

    • JStanton

      So I suppose what you’re saying is that the money that you have been paying out for years for retirement insurance should be redirected to pay down our national debt and the underlying program, Social Security, should be eliminated.

      You’re also saying that the money you have been paying out for years for guaranteed insurance for medical care in old age should be redirected to help pay down the same debt and the underlying program, Medicare, should be eliminated.

      You are saying that you are not entitled to that money, right?

      • yankeegospelgirl

        Social Security is a giant Ponzi scheme. The people who are told that that money is being kept for them are being LIED to. L-I-E-D. That money isn’t being saved for them. It’s being paid out constantly to other people. That’s an unsustainable course. One day it’ll crash, and it will not be pretty.

        Now of course we can’t immediately yank the rug out from under the program. But it should be eased out.

        • JStanton

          Your understanding of SS is quite flawed. It’s one thing to have an ideological opposition to the program and another to misrepresent what it does. SS cannot crash nor will it become bankrupt. What it can do is not pay out 100% of benefits due to insufficient receipts.

          What can crash is a retirement system based on Wall Street. That’s undeniable because you’ve seen it happen. You have never seen SS miss a payment.

          I’m not opposed to SS reform but I prefer people not regurgitate right-wing demagoguery. Yes, it’s not just the liberals that lie.

          • Paul

            What JStanton just said.

            Social Security ISN’T a ponzi scheme, and as a matter of fact, if its funds weren’t dipped into at every opportunity, it would be able to meet all of its obligations, no sweat.

            Unfortunately, every year except for 1999 and 2000, social security has been dipped into. Take the cap off of the payroll tax, and it’d be in even better shape (and I’d take that over a symbolic raise on the income tax any day).

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