My read is that he started to say a phrase that he's clearly said a lot, in company that agrees, and he suddenly remembered that he was making a speech to a large group and he panicked and tried to stop himself. First he stumbled into trying to substitute "African American" - another tell that proves what he had in mind - then realized that that too would sound racist to this audience so then he floundered around for a minute.

How did this happen? Rick Santorum is used to using and thinking the phrase "government n-word" and momentarily thought that he was talking to a small group of like-minded people, instead of this bigger group where it wasn't "safe" for him to say that.

edit for clarity

He had to make a instant course correction, otherwise we would have heard him say what he says in private around the kids and friends imo.

"Anti-war government nigger" means something?

I guess in Santorum's world "anti-war" is also an insult.

I watched the clip and it seemed more like an accident. I think he just felt really comfortable there and almost let loose with a word that he might use in the company of trusted people.

government N word..." is such a common phrase for Santorum and his repubilican cronies to use in conversations with each other, that Santorum forgot himself during the speech and almost let it slip out.

Sometimes when I hear Santorum talk, I get the impression that his sanity is just hanging by a thread, that he might start "saying how he really feels" at any moment.
I predict we will see a great freakout/meltdown type moment from him. The pressure is building, it could happen any time.

Let him, and everyone around him, see what's really inside.

Can't you just picture him, with huge googly eyes staring blankly out into space, giggling like a nut, unable to speak.

From Time Out Chicago

And what is the "government n-word"?

Oops! Edit to withdraw my question. I just found it!

The upside. For most decent Americans, he's now un-electable for any position outside of the Clan.

in his informal conversations with his racist supporters and that's why it 'slipped' out. It is a word that he is intimately familiar with, it corresponds with his "I don't want to make black people's lives better" when talking about welfare.


In this instance, he was, imo, just carrying forward his grotesque, racist belief that blacks are government "n" word, all on welfare, etc.

His comment:

"We know the candidate Barack Obama...what he was like. The anti-war, government nig..."

Seem clear to me.

it just seems that if a guy is throwing N bombs around so regularly that he could almost accidentally say it in a campaign speech for President, that he would have said it in front of the wrong person way before now and been crushed by it.

two years before the election of President Obama. Between 2006 and his run for the Presidency, he worked in the private sector, conservative private sector. If he used the "n" word and, again, I believe he did and does, he would have been in circles that would not find it inappropriate, imo.

The overt racism we are seeing has come out more and more since the Presidential campaign of 2008 and is escalating even more during this campaign.

So he's got the crowd going. And as he is proud to say, he does not use a teleprompter but just says what he thinks.

That's how he slipped up when he said he didn't want to give black people other people's money ... then had to make up the "blah" nonsense.

He knows that his base thinks every black person is cheating the welfare system, living large off the government ... and that's where the term "government N****R" comes from. Its a term that's already in his head. Probably one that he uses within very small circles.

So he's 30 minutes into his rant, he's going to attack Obama with as much force as possible because his base loves that.

He's going to walk that racial line making sure his audience knows exactly what he means. Minorities steal from the government, that's his message.

And as he speaks extemporaneously, he's feeling the rhythm of the moment, and those words start to fall out of his mouth ... he hears them starting to become audible, and he realizes that he's about to cross the racial line that he's trying to walk so very close to ... and he tries to recover, and change direction.

Just like he didn't mean to say "black" in the prior case, he wants us to believe that he was not in the process of saying "n****r.

That's what I think happened.

if you essentially say "everyone on welfare is black" you certainly sound racist. But frankly that kind of racism is spouted every day all over the place. If you call the President of the United States a nigger you are done. Period. Finished. Gone. If it was calculated, and that's kind of where I lean on it, he is even crazier than I ever imagined.

I think he's a racist.

I think he's nowhere near as smart as people are tripping over themselves to give him credit for.

I think he has no imagination, that he speaks in stock phrases.

I think he got caught up in the moment and he forgot to consult his inner editor.

I think one of those stock phrases slipped out.

I think it should be the end of him, but somehow it won't be.

I think this country is in bigger trouble than I thought it was.

It was a way of saying the "n" word without really saying the "n" word, kind of in between "negro" and that other word. These were usually politicians from the south, where there were very bitter feelings over desegregation, busing and the like among whites. There are still many people alive today who were raised in that racist environment. I don't know if Santorum is one of those people but there were many racists and segregationists in the north as well. I believe that at one time, Ohio was the state that had the highest KKK membership. I agree that today, it would involve a death wish for a professional politician to intentionally use the "n" word. Whether they might do it accidentally probably depends on whether and how routinely they use the word in private and how tired they are. It's been a long campaign and slips of the tongue can easily happen from fatigue and resulting inattention.

The thing is, we only have what was said as evidence. How else can we interpret "anti-war government nig"? I read some blogs that explained that Santorum meant to say "anti-war peacenik" and was riffing on the word "peacenik", changing it to "governmentnik". But "governmentnik" makes no sense to me. Perhaps "big governmentnik" might be more understandable. Since Santorum uttered the word "nig", the ball is in his court and he owes the explanation if he has one. I hope it's more convincing than the "blah" phrase where he has already raised questions over his possible racist feelings unintentionally on display through a slip of the tongue.

and accidently said "government" and got half way to the "negotiator" before realizing "government negotatior" doesn't make much sense.

Dropping the n-word in a speech is complete and total political suicide.