[Bobbisox]

And you think I am going to move to Santorum based on one unknown Iowa blogger? Get real...I game you some professional information that should enlighten you as to Mr. Newt’s background and qualifications.

You gave me an opinion piece from an Iowa blogger whom I have never heard of. What a joke!

[darrellmaurina]

For whatever it's worth, that Iowa blogger you mention got cited in national media when he did an interview with Santorum on faith issues and Santorum said things that ended up being newsworthy. Santorum, especially early on in his Iowa campaign, was doing interviews with pretty much anyone who would talk to him, and some of those small-town reporters and bloggers asked some really good questions, plus allowed him time and space to explain himself beyond what major media would have allowed to any candidate.

It's been an undertone in this campaign since Iowa, but the work of Dutch Reformed people in northwest Iowa was critical to Rick Santorum’s rise. PCA/ARP people in the South and in West Michigan were paying attention and decided to get on his bandwagon early. The Caffeinated family of blogs is run by PCA people and other Calvinists who are trying to promote a Christian view of political activism.

Of course, Rick Santorum’s base of support has long since moved into traditional evangelical circles. That needed to happen; there aren't anywhere near enough Calvinists in the United States to be politically influential outside certain key states and prominent figures (D. James Kennedy, Sproul, Ryken, Schaeffer, Joel Belz/Marvin Olasky from World Magazine, etc.)

For whatever it's worth, I'm a member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, attend church with a staffer from World Magazine, and spent most of my adult life in the Dutch Reformed world, though that had very little to do with my decision to support Rick Santorum.