Romney Wins in Illinois - Frothy Mix Vows to Fight On

Mitt Romney won the Illinois GOP primary by a sizable margin, but the results were not enough of a blow out to kill the campaign of the delusional, religious extremists' candidate, Rick Santorum who - as noted in past posts - represents the insanity and danger of the extreme "Christian" Right. I put the word Christian in quotation marks because there is nothing loving or compassionate about these extremists who have truly made Christianity into a never ending message of hate, particularly towards LGBT individuals who they would prefer simply cease to exist. A piece in the Washington Post looks at Romney's win. Here are some highlights:

Mitt Romney won the GOP presidential primary in Illinois on Tuesday, walloping rival Rick Santorum in a key state whose voters are a bellwether for Republicans nationwide.

With close to 99 percent of precincts reporting, Romney was leading Santorum by almost 12 percentage points, and victory would allow him to extend his already-imposing lead in the race for delegates.

After squeaker victories over Santorum in Michigan and Ohio, he needed to show that he could kindle enough voter enthusiasm for a big win outside his Northeastern power base. On Tuesday, he got it. For the first time since long-ago Florida, the former Massachusetts governor demonstrated that he could win as big as he spends.

Romney won many of the populous suburban counties in the Chicago area, while Santorum took rural areas in the south and west. Romney still remains far from the winning threshold of 1,144 delegates, which means the GOP race will probably continue for weeks. For Santorum, Illinois was a dismal end to an unhappy week.

Meanwhile, another Washington Post story suggests that Santorum's batshitery may be starting to take its toll outside of heavy Kool-Aid drinking areas. Here are some excerpts:

His candid comments and unconventional moves were badges of authenticity in the early contests, but they now raise doubts about Santorum’s capacity to be his party’s standard-bearer in the general election. And they have hampered Santorum’s ability to capi­tal­ize on opportunities to narrow the gap with Mitt Romney, particularly in large states with diverse electorates.

His second-place showing in Illinois represented another squandered opportunity for Santorum, who is running out of chances to stop Romney and can’t afford to spend more time backtracking on things he’s said.


Speaking off the cuff has proven treacherous for Santorum, undercutting his efforts to expand his base of support beyond social conservatives to economically stressed voters . . .

During the past few days alone, Santorum has strayed off message into the subject of pornography, one that normally does not figure in presidential contests.

Santorum also had to mop up after his statement that “I don’t care what the unemployment rate is going to be. It doesn’t matter to me.”

[S]ome of the candidate’s decisions — such as spending time and money in Puerto Rico, where he had virtually no chance of picking up any delegates in Sunday’s primary — have been mystifying. And Santorum made his chances there even worse by asserting that the island’s residents would have to make English their “main language” before becoming a state.

His apologists can say whatever they want, but I believe that Santorum is a nutcase driven in large part by religious extremism and some unknown demons that make him cling to reactionary and harsh religious beliefs. Watching him speak last night with his children in the background, I could not help but wonder at what emotional and psychological damage those young people are experiencing living in a religious fanatic home. We don't get to choose our parents, but that doesn't mean having extremists for parents isn't potentially painful in many ways.