Game Over for Santorum

At Gettysburg, PA (of all places!) Rick Santorum announced today that he’s throwing in the towel on his bid to become the Theocrat in Chief of the United States.

No surprise really, considering that in all probability he would otherwise have lost the primary later this month in his home state. Not only would that have been a crushing blow, but also a bitter personal reminder of the defeat that saw him ousted from the Senate in 2006. Better to end his improbable yet relatively successful campaign on a positive note rather than waging an ugly and futile campaign against Mitt Romney’s vastly better-financed attack machine.

Viewing his emotionally touching concession speech it’s not hard to see why so many people were attracted to Santorum – he comes across as warm, genuinely compassionate and, as pols say, “relatable”… What a tragic shame for Republicans that Willard Romney has absolutely none of those qualities to his credit.

Subliminal Frames

If you’ve watched Santorum’s “Obamaville” web advert once or twice, it’s easy to miss a number of what can only be described as “subliminal” images as they appear for only a fraction of a second and often in rapid succession. Whether or not that advertising tactic actually works is highly debatable – personally, I’m rather doubtful that it has any effect whatsoever. It is, however, highly insightful with regards to the mindset of the ad’s creators.

So here for your edification are some of the split-second images you might not have apprehended at first or second glance.

Having ferreted them out, it’s hard for me to watch the video without seeing them now, but I’m curious… Did you notice that the attractive black woman shushing the viewer with her finger over her lips appears again towards the end of the ad? What do you think she’s asking the viewer to keep secret?

After the ad conflates Iran’s Ahmadinejad with Obama on the television, did you notice the little blond boy wandering into a dark, menacing forest? I know for sure I missed that one.

But you probably did get the quick shot of the scary-looking Muslim dude, right? Can’t demonize Obama without one of those!

The hamburger coming out of the meat grinder also escaped my attention at first. Not sure where that metaphor is directed… could be the war in Afghanistan or possibly some allusion to the Soylent Green future awaiting the miserable white folk of Obamaville should you-know-who get re-elected.

The others you may have caught: the close-up of the pensive young woman (not sure what that’s meant to signify); Obama looking terribly grim and forbidding; the Capitol building shot with a red filter to make it appear Hellish or possibly awash in blood; the goofy, uptight looking white woman with glasses sneering in disgust; and finally the helpless baby clothed in red in a pink bassinet.

I’m actually quite amazed that Santorum’s people didn’t include a picture of a fetus in the ad somewhere, but I guess this image of the baby comes pretty close to conjuring up that mental association.

“Obamaville” Examined

Wow. I’d heard about this attack ad put together by the Santorum campaign and finally saw it last night on Hardball. Chris Matthews and his fellow chuckleheads all seemed to have a good laugh at its apocalyptic absurdity and the fact it plays more like the trailer for a slasher movie than a political ad.

It’s quite a stunning piece of work, especially when examined closely. A site called businessinsider.com has broken it down frame by frame, along with hilarious commentary.

However, they’ve also missed a whole lot of “subliminal” things that were stuffed into this incredibly bizarre one minute video. Things you may not even have realized were there. So, stay tuned… In a future post I’ll try to tease them out for you — some are quite amazing.

“Pretend it’s Obama”

During a campaign stop in Monroe, Louisiana, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum stopped at a shooting range for some target practice. Before aiming for his second target, a woman in the background can be heard to say, “Pretend it’s Obama,” then chuckle at her own amazing wit.

Note: The comment is made at 0:37 of the video.

Latest Ron Paul Attack Ad

Here’s the latest negative attack ad from the Ron Paul campaign slagging Rick Santorum for not being a “fiscal conservative”… (Seems to have been done by the same agency that created the snappy, tough-talking Ford F-150 truck ads.)

I suppose one could quibble about specifics of the dubious allegations made if there was a point to such an endevour, but perhaps a more intriguing question for Ron Paul supporters is why his campaign NEVER attacks Mitt Romney… Rather curious, that.

Maybe, as some have speculated, Ron Paul’s entire campaign is nothing but an enormously expensive venture to become the “last” Chairman of the Federal Reserve under a Romney administration. Seems like a highly improbable outcome of his inevitably doomed bid to be the Republican Party nominee, but hey… it’s no less detached from reality than the rest of his batshit crazy domestic policy proposals, so who knows?

Foster Friess on Contraception

Rick Santorum’s billionaire “sugar daddy” stuns MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell with his retrograde “joke” on the subject of contraception:

Hard though it is to believe that U.S. politics of late has shifted into the bizarre realm of ridiculous “culture war” issues like contraception, it’s absolutely no surprise whatsoever that the key backer of the current GOP frontrunner would reveal himself to be an anachronistic old codger who’s flippant notion of birth control is that “gals” should just stop spreading their legs.

“Obock Obama”

Wearing a matching sweater vest, Foster Friess, the billionaire investor backing Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum’s frothy campaign to be Theocrat-in-Chief of the Free World, introduces his pet candidate at CPAC 2012:

After opening with a mildly amusing (albeit implausible) joke at the expense of Mitt Romney, Friess goes on to observe that rather than supporting hackneyed old political warhorses as the Republicans have too-often done in the recent past, Democrats have won presidential elections by bringing “fresh faces” like Carter and Clinton “from out nowhere”… A fair enough comment perhaps, but then he goes on to add, “they bring Oback Obama from beyond nowhere.”

So where exactly is “beyond nowhere”… Chicago, Hawaii – Kenya, perhaps? And how utterly puerile is it that this high-rolling billionaire doesn’t see fit to call the President of the United States by his proper name, but instead deliberately mangles it for comic effect?

Santorumentum!

Def: The frothy mix of media hype and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of non-binding Republican primary victories.

How sad is it that a moronic theocrat like Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum is viewed by a majority of Republican primary voters in the heartland of America as a preferable alternative to the “perfectly lubricated weather vane” that is Willard “Mitt” Romney?

And again… where were all the Ron Paul supporters? I thought they were supposed to prevail in these caucus states, what with their rabid grassroots enthusiasm and all. Maybe they were too busy getting stoned and spinning wild anti-Zionist/NWO conspiracy theories on internet forums to actually get out and… you know, vote.

BLR: Rick Santorum

Looks like the folks at Bad Lip Reading (BLR) got their mojo back after a few duds following the priceless Rick Perry BLR, “Save a pretzel for the gas jets”… Maybe it helps if the subject is stark raving mad to begin with. Just a theory.

p.s. Sorry for being MIA for the last week. That’s what happens when you get super-busy with work. Not that I’m complaining!

Profile in Gutless Pandering

At a rally in Florida the other day, a disgruntled bigot drew enthusiastic applause from a crowd of likeminded Republican tools when she claimed that Obama is “an avowed Muslim… who has no legal right to be calling himself president.” Standing silently at the podium, Rick Santorum tacitly condoned her slanderous bullshit before responding with asinine remarks of his own that simply affirmed her more paranoid assertions.

Whatever else his faults, when confronted with a similar situation back in 2008, John McCain at least had the essential decency to school some of his more fearful, addlebrained supporters.