Rick was asked about such by Gregory and didn't back down. The Big Journalism clip sourced above didn't include that segment. The full (22 minute) MTP interview is up now and is worth viewing if you want to see Santorum handle a hostile environment. Watch his answer and see what you think of it. My poor paraphrase would be he said Congress was elected to supervise spending and they could either act on that responsibility or abdicate it to the unelected bureaucrats. He also admitted the process has become more broken with time.
Santorum also addressed the lack of endorsement issue, claiming he hadn't asked a single former Senate colleague for one. Amongst other reasons humbly said he didn't think it was proper to ask for one when he was at 3% in the polls, that he first had to earn the right to ask. And he also discussed his late endorsement of Romney in '08 and described his reasoning then.
Don't take my word for it. See and judge for yourself. I'd encourage the same for any Freeper in an early voting state. He may not be as smooth as Reagan... or Palin. But IMHO he defends conservative positions across a broad spectrum against liberal media attack here better than I can recall any of 'our' Presidential nominees since the Gipper himself. He doesn't back down.
Unlike all of Obama's pre-Presidential opponents he doesn't have any divorce to unseal for dirt. He can't convincingly be lampooned as George Bush's third term. He's not a rich man, so can't be attacked as such. He never was for ObamaCare or any form of healthcare mandate. What's left for Obama's options to attack him in a general? The Democrats can't run Obama as the pro-life son of a favorite old governor as they ran Casey against Rick in '06. All I can see it attacking Santorum on the issues. And if Santorum can do as well in the fall as he did today Obama would be in deep trouble. And regarding the money issue I suspect Rick Santorum can run a Presidential campaign without money better than Obama has run the country without money. And close his deficit faster!
Watched the interview with Gregory...sheesh! Rick’s endorsement of Romney in 2008 was just sickening (to call him a “conservative?” Get real!)...and all because he was against McCain...not because he was truly for Romney. Look, I like Rick Santorum, I wish him well, but what he did there is more of the same old crap from politicians...supporting/endorsing one guy just because you don’t want the other guy. It’s crap like that that encourages crap like Romney to continue hanging around! With that being said, I’d still support Santorum.