Santorum's field of dreams

The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) ^ | December 26, 2015 | David Shribman

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Winterset, Iowa - Beyond the silos, down the street from the Rexall Drug, a few steps from the movie theater and the bakery, and hard by the Ben Franklin five-and-dime sits the Northside Cafe, with its nine wooden booths and its 15 shiny circular stools along the counter.

This noontime, the hand-scrawled sign outside speaks of chicken-fried steak, butternut-squash soup, bread pudding, homemade desserts, hot drinks - and Rick Santorum. The former senator from Pennsylvania won the 2012 Iowa caucuses. Here, a classic Iowa small town, is just the sort of staging ground Mr. Santorum put to good use four years ago.

He pounded down chili in local lunch spots like the Northside Cafe, and met Iowans in groups of four or five. But he multiplied those single digits of listeners by hundreds of appearances, building a political force the old-fashioned way.

It worked in 2012, and now Mr. Santorum, with the loneliness of the long-distance runner, is trying it again.

[marron]

I like him. I’m not supporting him for president, but I like him. He seems a good, decent man.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He is.

[goldstategop]

He has zero chance of winning the nomination.

The guy lost his Senate seat in his own home state.

[Vigilanteman]

He is a good, decent man. He was the congressman for our district before he got elected to two terms in the U.S. Senate. He's a hard worker and that helped him win Iowa in 2012 on a shoestring budget. He was also the clear runner-up and might have challenged Romney if Gingrich had the decency to get out after losing neighboring Tennessee and Alabama to him. But he didn't and Santorum's success as clear runner up should've given him a better spot this time.

But it just isn't happening in 2016. He needs to be realistic about it and, after Iowa, I think he will be.