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The Reporters: US mid-terms

Justin Webb

A vote for Rick


A visit to Philadelphia to witness the bare-knuckle fight to keep one of the best known social conservatives in the Senate. is in trouble and has the slightly haunted look of a man who doesn鈥檛 quite know where it all went wrong.

santorum_203ap.jpgWe hear him on conservative talk radio in the car with the host praising him for his lusty singing from the conservative hymn-sheet but the man himself, on a crackly phone line, is lukewarm in response. The reason perhaps: we catch up with him in Philadelphia (no conservative bastion, let's face it) where a new-look Rick is talking about his ability to keep jobs and work across party lines. Abortion: unmentioned. Gays: unmentioned. Iraq: unmentioned.

Still he has my vote on one count - after the event he stood and took my questions about whether the social agenda was done for, with good humour and good grace. A lesser man, faced with a 主播大秀 reporter with an off-message agenda, would have walked off. He answered four questions politely and fully. Good for him.

Justin Webb is the 主播大秀's chief North America radio correspondent.

颁辞尘尘别苍迟蝉听听Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 01:34 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Duncan wrote:

Why not ask him a direct question about abortion, gays or Iraq?

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  • 2.
  • At 01:46 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • A Norman wrote:

Not long ago Santorum likened gay marriage to marrying ones dog. He is still playing the politics game but this time as a form of damage control.

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  • 3.
  • At 01:52 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Matt wrote:

I suggest you watch the Senate Debate from earlier this week. Santorum will win the next election because his opponent, Bob Casey, will only complain about Santorum and talk about how voters want change, but doesn't offer any concrete solutions for these issues. It all seems awfully familiar to the last presidential race. Democrats need to stop being sideline crybabies and start explaining exactly why moderates should vote for them if they want to enact this swing in politics that they keep talking about.

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  • 4.
  • At 02:58 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Kate Nelson wrote:

Oh goodie, I read the entire fluff piece in one sitting. I am now counting on your vote if I ever run for elective office. It is good to know that people will endorse a candidate without needing any more reason than "he liked me, he really, really liked me."

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  • 5.
  • At 03:38 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Bob wrote:

"Sideline cry babies?" You must know different Democrats than I do. The ones I know are taking punches at people like Santorum and you for working to divide this country and trying to use the US Constitution to their own political and personal business ends. Enacting a swing in politics means we have to find a way of preventing Republicans from messing with voter results. The first step should have been to prevent the guy who contributes to and supports Bush's administration from being the same guy who makes the voting machines. Stupid mistakes like this will cost the Dems the election.

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  • 6.
  • At 04:07 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Drew Best wrote:

Being born and raised in Philadelphia, I can remember when Santorum first ran for the Senate, and said the he would raise the retirement age to 70 years. He and his colleagues have taken the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and turned it into the party of Jefferson Davis and Joseph McCarthy. In 1994 the GOP fell into the hands of the Christian Coalition and the Far Right, and with more and more Americans rejecting the politics of fear, the Party is now being exposed for what it has truly become...Shallow, Lackluster and most of all Criminally Corrupt. They have shown contempt for dissent, the rights of women, science, the UN and providing the working American with a decent living wage. They're a profound nightmare...the kind that doesn't go away once you awaken. Let's send them home packing, and bring this American Nightmare to an end.

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  • 7.
  • At 04:44 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Tim wrote:

Instead of looking for candidates who simply answer your questions, why not tell us what the answers were. Your boss might be happy that Santorum responded to you, but would Santorum's responses give women and queers any indication that he will cease his virulent attacks on us?

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  • 8.
  • At 04:51 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Shawn wrote:

I will take great pleasure in seeing Santorum lose. He and his kind are highly confused morally and dangerously extreme. The American far-right is dying...for now.

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  • 9.
  • At 05:08 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • miguel luevano wrote:

mr. justin webb

The bbc is starting to sound like the fox news, I was tought not to jump in strangers cars if they try to lure me in with candy. I think been a reporter must be one of the hardest job trying to report on a story and keep ones personal views out of it. I hope readers of the bbc are intellegent enough to make there own political choice. politicians are allways polite when there down in the gutters. mr. webb thank you for the story

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  • 10.
  • At 05:16 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • Andy wrote:

Rick Santorum has tried to liken the war in Iraq to the Lord of The Rings, saying (I am paraphrasing) "he wants the eye of Mordor trained on Iraqis, not Americans."

Ridiculous!

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  • 11.
  • At 05:56 PM on 19 Oct 2006,
  • David Farmerie wrote:

You have given your vote to Santorum for the same reason so many Pennsylvania voters will, and that is the saddest comment of all. Santorum, for those of us who have lived with him, have seen the damage that he has done - and not just in Pennsylvania. He is a man who would have done well under Hitler, and if you had probed with your questions you may have revealed that. The job of a reporter is to get to the facts - all the facts - the true facts. Perhaps you have been in Washington too long.

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  • 12.
  • At 09:52 AM on 20 Oct 2006,
  • db wrote:

Calm down.

A number of people seem to be taking the "X gets my vote" comment literally. That is a mistake.

In this case "X gets my vote for Y" seems to mean "X did Y, which was positive and unexpected". It certainly doesn't imply that the 主播大秀 North America correspondent is going to be voting for Mr. Santorum.

"Divided by a common language."

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  • 13.
  • At 01:38 PM on 20 Oct 2006,
  • Aidan wrote:

Whilst I strongly disagree with Santorum on an awful lot, I will give him kudos for having gone on the Daily Show - an arena that is not typically hospitable to the Christian Right. At least the guy will stand up for his ideas and talk about them, even when they might harm his campaign.

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  • 14.
  • At 11:23 PM on 20 Oct 2006,
  • Bob Kolinski wrote:

Back in the day, "Social Agenda" meant equal rights for all people, fighting racism, helping the poor, increasing funding and access to education for all Americans.

Today, thanks to the neo-conservative Republican agenda it means tax breaks for the wealthy, releasing corporations from any government regulation or oversight, reducing the rights of minorities, limiting access to health care for women, replacing science with religious mythology, and making sure we have a war or two in the works so people will not notice that they are being raped and robbed at home.

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Good point, db (12).

Another thing that strikes me is that the Beeb is still fairly new to this whole blogging lark. Most polibloggers don't do anything but blog, but it's a sideline for 主播大秀 reporters, and presumably is intended *not* to contain any actual real reportage, which goes into their reports. Hence this rather limp 'this is what I did today when I wasn't actually using my brain' effort.

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  • 16.
  • At 04:56 PM on 23 Oct 2006,
  • Amy wrote:

Uh . . . Mr. Webb, care to tell us what the answers were? Or do you really expect us to stand up and cheer for a candidate simply because he *gasp* answered a reporter's questions?

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  • 17.
  • At 12:01 AM on 24 Oct 2006,
  • Greg Avakian wrote:

Mr. Webb: we Pennsylvanians understand that even though Rick answered 4 questions that doesn't mean that he didn't lie to you when he answered them.

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  • 18.
  • At 04:09 AM on 24 Oct 2006,
  • William H. White wrote:

Ask anyone a question or three on their way to a gallows, in this case electoral, and I am sure they would linger to answer, very fully indeed. One suspects the Senator鈥檚 modest cooperation is less a testament to character than condition, even if it makes the reporter equally grateful.

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  • 19.
  • At 12:00 AM on 25 Oct 2006,
  • Jan wrote:

While I don't live in Pennsylvania I too would be interested in knowing what the questions and answers were.

Also, one should not base a vote on if one likes someone or not. A contest for a seat in the U. S. Senate is not high school student government race. Ability, not likability, and a candidate's positions on important issues facing the U. S. should be the key factors in deciding how to vote.

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