2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Santorum would be a courageous and brilliant GE opponent, we should fear him. [View all]pa28
(6,145 posts)Romney comes across as an automaton who will lie or triangulate based on the audience he is talking to at the moment. He's an obvious liar and IMO that's why the republicans are in the process of rejecting him. I think he'd be rejected as a phony in the general election as well.
However, Santorum has one huge advantage we should not underestimate. No matter how crazy the content of his speeches or the extremity of his positions he creates the impression of a reasonable, humble and sincere man if you don't happen to know his backround on the issues. He actually believes what he's saying and no matter how crazy you don't get the sense he's lying or repeating a talking point calculated for political effect.
I think Obama would tear Romney to bits but when it comes to the idea of running against Santorum we'd better be careful what we wish for IMO.