Santorum won Iowa, but Iowa was NOT a primary, it was a Caucus, so apples and oranges there. Secondly, and I have challenged every Santorum supporter here and elsewhere to answer this, and have not been able to get one... What did Santorum do to earn your support?
Did he stand out in any way? Did he personally do anything? No one can cite me anything he did during the campaign, other than not being Romney or Newt, that moved them to support him. He basically got the votes by being last man standing... that’s not going to win you a national campaign.
I congratulate Santorum for winning Iowa, but Iowa does not a national campaign make. In fact rarely does Iowa actually pick the ending nominee.
What did he do to earn my support?
He already was my number two when Cain got in, where Cain was my number one.
Why was Cain stronger? I loved Cain’s plan to fix the system, gut the right things from the budget and the fact that he was solid on prolife cause, and on gay marriage? Sold.
I liked the fact that Cain was an outsider.
Now, what did Santorum do to rank being second? Solid on the prolife cause, solid on gay marriage, faithful Catholic, opposed to contraception.
Less strong on the fiscal conservative end, sitting Senator, on the inside. So his record earned him a number two on my list.
When Cain was savaged and pushed out, Santorum earned my support by simply standing up for the right things at the right time.
I actually had Gingrich ranked 5th, behind Paul when Cain was still in.
Gingrich, advantages -
Stronger on the military. Stronger on fiscal policy, stronger on Israel, stronger on gay marriage.
Paul, advantages
Stronger on prolife - Much stronger fiscal conservative, Not even in the same ballpark as Newt. Stronger on marriage and family overall than Newt, stronger on economic globalism, stronger on the environment, stronger on Obamacare than Newt, which was the deciding factor - even over Gay marriage. I can’t support someone who’s supported O-Care even if it was ‘just in the past’. I simply can’t trust them on that issue.
Perry, advantages - across the board over Newt.
Perry, advantage over Santorum - better fiscal conservative, executive experiencem, Santorum is stronger on the prolife cause, and that was my deciding factor for Santorum over Perry.
Bachmann/Santorum, but Santorum as a Senator has more experience than Bachmann. The two are really close, but for me, I wanted a guy. :)
So in order:
Cain
Santorum
Bachmann
Perry
Paul
Newt
Romney
Huntsmen