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AP Photo/Wong Maye-E
Las Vegas Sands CEO and Chairman Sheldon Adelson speaks during a media briefing with the backdrop of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands on Dec. 21, 2009 in Singapore.
By Anjeanette Damon (contact) 
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 | 4:54 p.m.
In some of his first public comments on the presidential race, Las Vegas Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson candidly described GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s dwindling chances for the nomination and said he doesn’t want Rick Santorum “running my country.”
Adelson, whose family has given more than $16 million to the super political action committee backing Gingrich, remains unimpressed with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as well, according to JewishJournal.com.
But Adelson acknowledged his favored candidate isn’t going to win the race.
“It appears as though he’s at the end of his line,” Adelson told a small group Monday at The Jewish Federations of North America’s TribeFest, held at the Venetian. “I mean, mathematically, he can’t get anywhere near the numbers.”
Video of the brief discussion was posted by JewishJournal.com.
Adelson, wearing an “Obama... Oy Vey!” button, went on to say that he knows and personally likes Santorum, but that Santorum’s socially conservative views trouble him.
“I got to tell you something, I don’t want him to run my country,” Adelson said.
Adelson wasn’t quite as critical of Romney, but did not offer a glowing endorsement of the frontrunner in the primary race.
“The problem with Romney — he’s not the bold decision maker like Newt Gingrich is,” Adelson said. “Every time I talk to him he says 'Well, let me think about it.’ Everything I’ve said to Mitt, 'let me look into it.’
“He’s like Obama. When Obama was in the Illinois Senate, 186 times he voted present because he didn’t want to establish a record for himself.”
Romney doesn't have a chance. As meaningless as many might think it is, as a dog lover I'm insulted with what Romney did to his dog on a family trip.
On Sheldon. He's looking for a best candidate that will back his pro Israel position. Stay out of politics Shel, business is your game.
I will vote for any Republican candidate . Anyone is better than BO. Just look what he has done with this country in 3 + yrs. Housing ,Tarp, Unemployment,DEBT increased by 5 Trillion,our defense has been compromised. look what he said to the Russian Pres when he didn't know the mike was on. I also didn't mention Obamacare . He has been a disaster and we must vote him out. Please Sheldon any Rep is better than BO.
...I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Adelson, I do NOT want Santorum running the USA government.
I have this horrible, horrible feeling there will be persecution on anyone who doesn't agree with Santorums beliefs. He is extremely right wing on the whole religious side. I am actually afraid of what kind of world we will live in if Santorum is elected.
Tom, I completely agree with you, anyone who loves animals feels that what Romney did was extremely awful.
Adleson's country? I don't consider him an American.
No to worry, Mr. Adelson. Fernando Chui Sai On isn't up for election anytime soon, if ever, and he's running Macau very well in the Communist People's Republic of China.
How's your livery of aircraft, including the Boeing 747s and others registered in the Bahamas to avoid US taxes coming along?
...only because Santorum (who would be a disaster as president) isn't in Sheldon's pocket. You bought the wrong man, Mr. Adelson. Now you and our governor (who backed Rick "oops" Perry) just look irrelevant.
No one was (and is) worse than alGore in the 'stiff' department. Thank god we dodged that. Santorum...oy vey.
dersertfox,the 747SP's are registered in Bermuda. Hence the VP-BLK and VQ-B** reg. But,point taken. The BBj's , L1011 and Gulfstreams are registed in the U.S.
The reality is that the right does not have a contender to beat obama romney is like a cardboard sign, santorum graduated from the angle school of wacko and gingrich is so in love with himself and his arrogance he cant get the big picture
Guess what Shelly - It's not just YOUR country. You can try buying it but you failed.
Old coot Adelson flushed $16m down Newt's campaign toilet. That's all we need to know about his sick, twisted political views.
But Adelson is right about Etch A Sketch Romney, possibly the weakest candidate to ever lead a major party presidential race in April of an election year. Being the GOP frontrunner in 2012 is like being the fattest pig at a slaughterhouse.
Romney appears to stand above his GOP rivals only because the other three have their heads so firmly planted up their a**.
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
dip has been looking a lot better since Blagojevich lent him his toupee while ge went to "the big house'. How much did obama's senate seat go for? Too bad the bagholder Jackson Jr didn't go down too.
rather than the latent racism coming from the Fink hole?
It's almost impossible to imagine, but I agree with Mr. Adelson about both Santorum and Romney being bad for this country.
I don't see this fixation with, and giving copious amounts of money to, Gingrich though. The guy makes money off of being a nasty old ornery blowhard who never runs out of reasons to be like a disease ridden chihuahua in perpetual miserable attack mode. When he's not doing that, he uses his speech skills to cloak himself all the time as the voice of reason, all so that he can stay out there in the forefront. Because that makes him money. The fact of the matter is that all indications show that, since he left the House of Representatives, he is more interested in making money selling books, doing so called motivational speeches and creating slush funds that he one right after the other drains dry, only to go on and create another one to stay relevant, leaving a trail of unhappy and broke investers behind him.
He has found his niche as sort of like the male version of neo-conservative fame monger Sarah Palin, who does pretty much the same thing. It's a great gig if you can get it, I guess.
Oh well. Like I say, I don't understand it, but there is one thing that is for certain.
I'm pretty sure Mr. Adelson won't have to pay fifty dollars to be in a picture posing with Mr. Gingrich though.
I'd say that to date he's paid up for at least quite a few hundred thousand pictures....
Sheldon Adelson on Rick Santorum: 'I don't want him to run my country'
I guess it is a good thing that Santorum isn't running for the presidency of Israel then, right Shelly?
Nice to know whose country this is when Sheldon says "I don't want him running MY (emphasis mine) country". How does it feel conservatives, to know the wealthy know you are chumps?
i've heard from people that have personally dealt with adelson that the man is pure evil.
What kind of person is Jerry Fink to write such repulsive comments as this? "we should be going, tooth & nail, against the creepy-crawler now infesting the Oval Office and his fellow travelers. We need our focus to be laser-sharp on defeating Osama Obama come November. " The use of terms such as "creepy-crawlers", "infesting", and "Osama" are all attempts to dehumanize those Jerry hates in a juvenile and contemptible fashion.
Adleson bet $16,000,000 in Gingrich and lost. I guess he likes giving away money to his close friends. Since Adelson gave all that money to a republican SuperPAC, I'll never set foot into the Venetian or Palazzo again. (Go ahead and tell me he doesn't care about my $20, but if enough people take their money to another casino, Adleson will need to move to Isreal or Macau ... the places he should call "my country")
I don't want Santorum or Romney or Paul either. Obama wins in grand style against any of the republicans running this year.
I don't want Santorum running my country. This I agree with Mr. Adelson on. I don't want Gingrich running it either though.
I will give Adelson credit for the Sands he built in Singapore. It is truly a feat of engineering and style. The art gallery particularly impressive. I wish he would build something like that back here in Vegas instead of throwing it away on a hopeless presidential campaign, but it's his money, he can do what he wants with it.
Adelson has given the most, about $16 million to GOP Super Pacs. Less than 100 people have supplied about 90% or more of the GOP campaign primary donations thus far. They live in a world is closer to a dictatorship than a Democracy because they can make more money and eliminate the competition. The same plan is being drawn up for America.
Adelson doesn't like anyone he can't control and Santorum is just one person on a very long list. Adelson is one of those 'job creators', like Steve Wynn, who is looking for bigger tax breaks for control functions and personal power building such as jobs in Macau. Want a job with Steve in Macau? try:
http://www.wynnmacaujobs.com/
Privatizing Social Security is part of that plan. This will divert retirement savings to personal investment strategies to international plans that can go bankrupt without consequence to the fund managers, who keep all the salaries, bonuses and commissions earned to the day of bankruptcy in offshore banks.
70 years old and lost your retirement income? Become self-reliant. Apply for a job in Macau if there aren't any here. Live in a tent and hunt pigeons for dinner. What a future they have planned, but remember - this is being done for America! You'll be happier this way: knowing you've helped America.
Shelly-do mankind a favor & get yourself a hairpiece.
<<I saw him on the Jay Leno show last night and he makes Al Gore look like a Henny Youngman. Unless Romney can show alittle humanity and less robot like demeanor, Obama will clean his clock in debates and in the personality department>>
I saw him, too. Very stiff, almost rehearsed at times. I noticed he seemed very ill at eased, probably because Jay was asking questions that would be hard to dodge and Romney did anyway. One thing I agreed with him about was defense spending. But he totally lost me when I realized he knows nothing about the health insurance situation of a hell of a lot of Americans these days. Jay tried explaining to him he has friends that, without "Obamacare", they would not have been able to get insurance; Romney totally blew Jay off and started off on something he was totally wrong about. That's when I realized he has a disconnect with the American people about a lot of every day things that mean a lot to us. (I'm sorry Jay didn't bring up the gas prices; I would have loved to see how or what Romney would have said because he knows damn well it is not the President's fault about rising gas prices; my guess he would have turned the question around so his answer would benefit him, but not answer the question).
Actually Det_Munch, the president made a proposal today to raise the cost of business for oil and gas companies (ie takeaway their 'subsidies'). I would speculate that the price of gas would go, oh maybe, up then?
If only Obama could connect the dots. It should be relatively easy to prove he's a liar that he has "nothing to do with gas prices" during any debate.
Bottom line, I do not want Sheldon Adelson running my country.
"Jay tried explaining to him he has friends that, without "Obamacare", they would not have been able to get insurance"
This is where a lot of republicans have no clue just how big of a problem this is becoming. More and more people just denied health insurance for specious reasons. There's going to be a lot of independents who might otherwise vote republican who will vote for Obama simply because it is the only plan out there that has a chance in hell of getting them insurance. Republicans are disconnecting themselves and it's going to play out more and more in 2012. Obama will be re-elected. Better find a way to attract voters repub's..because there's a big independent population who aren't going to stand for inaction.
I didn't realize RS was running for Prez of Israel.....
@United 727 - just rabblerousing a little.
Adelson's claim for justifying the Bermuda registrations is that it's safer to have a registration in a neutral country where you're servicing clients from various places around the globe, and that's legitimate.
Plus, he doesn't need the N number to sustain or increase the resale value of the 747s.
I watched as Newt boarded his bus at the bus lobby a couple months ago at Venetian (one of the very few people there....more security than anyone else...) and knew he wouldn't be back. Kinda funny that Sheldon wasn't there to see him go. Shoulda waited a little longer to spend some of your customers' money that way Shel.
By the way, I'm just a schmoe, but it's MY country to ya little dwarf! It'll probably be my country a good bit longer than it'll be for you, I'd imagine.
As for which of the Conservatives actually make it into the Office, it'll be much better than the BumbleO in there right now.
Vegas Engineer,
Adelson didn't build the Singapore property, he fronted the money or borrowed it and hired professionals to do so.