Posted on 12/28/2011 6:01:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In a Republican nomination contest full of “second looks,” former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum may be heading toward a “first look” in the finale of the Iowa caucuses.
If you watched any of the Republican debates, you saw Santorum, a 53-year-old Catholic father of seven. He was the guy standing at the end of the candidate lineup complaining about not getting enough questions. Newt Gingrich clawed back into contention by scorching debate moderators for their bias and stupidity; Santorum stayed in the second tier while scolding moderators for not paying more attention to him.
It wasn’t the best forensic tack, but Santorum’s frustration was understandable. It had to irk him to watch the ill-informed novice Herman Cain soar to the top of the polls on the basis of his booming personality and unworkable 9-9-9 tax plan, then get showered with donations when past allegations of sexual harassment surfaced. If a fraction of that windfall had gone to Santorum simply for being a principled conservative and exemplary family man, he’d have more resources to compete in the intense Iowa ad wars.
Santorum is the great paradox of the Republican field: At a time when primary voters say they are desperate for a candidate of conviction and consistency, Santorum is both on a range of issues, yet he hasn’t had a proverbial moment. Too earnest and too conventional, he lacks the personal pizzazz that has temporarily boosted the Republican shooting stars. He’s worked to make up for it with an admirably tireless 99-county grass-roots campaign in Iowa that has taken voters and the issues seriously.
Santorum’s calling card is his social conservatism, and he’s competing for Iowa’s evangelical voters with Texas governor Rick Perry and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Santorum is more knowledgeable than Perry and more careful than Bachmann, and he has demonstrated more swing-state appeal than both by winning two statewide races in heavily Democratic Pennsylvania. His 18-point reelection shellacking in 2006 is his albatross, although Ronald Reagan himself might have lost in Pennsylvania in that GOP annus horribilis.
It didn’t help that Santorum’s outspokenness on social issues — especially those related to homosexuality — made him a figure of hatred and vulgar mockery on the left. But he’s not a thoughtless culture warrior, in it for the bombast. Santorum links his social conservatism to the struggles of the working class in one of the few thematic departures in a Republican primary that has been more about personalities and past heterodoxies than substantive differences.
In the debates, Santorum has constantly talked about increasing economic mobility. In a heresy for a Republican, he’s acknowledged that some countries in Europe are more mobile than we are, and he has noted the disparity between the unemployment rates of college-educated and non-college-educated Americans. Santorum proposes zeroing out the corporate tax rate for manufacturers to provide them a boost as a source of blue-collar jobs. “We need to talk about people at the bottom of the income scale being able to get necessary skills and rise so they can support themselves and a family,” Santorum said at the CNBC economy debate. He’s right, although he is one of the few Republicans who seem determined to have the conversation.
He’s always clear that the breakdown of the family is an inescapable factor in limiting economic aspiration. He cites the widely divergent poverty rates of two-parent and single-parent families. “You can’t have limited government,” he says, “if the family breaks down.” He speaks powerfully of how, when he was growing up in a very modest home, a mother and father were “the most important gift I was given.” He wants to triple the personal deduction for each child, making his tax-reform proposal the most pro-family of any on offer from the GOP candidates.
Santorum has seen a slight bump in the Iowa polls. He is still grinding it out on the ground and hoping it translates into a last-minute surge. Republican voters could do worse, and so far this year, at times already have.
— Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review
Hear! Hear! Santorum is still my favorite in the field. We don’t get to vote until September, so I hope he’s still around by then.
Seems to me the real chance Santorum is to purpose bold budget cuts and to attack Obama relentlessly for almost everything he has done...?
Otherwise, he doesn’t have a real chance of lasting beyond Iowa in my not so humble opinion.
That's one mother of a mistake to my mind.
And enough folks thought the same to cost him his job.
Santorum's done nothing since to convince me he's seen the error of his ways.
Wouldn’t last 3 minutes against Obama’s media machine.
And the purity caucus will abandon him the moment O’s people start leaking out some not so pure votes/statements to some boneheaded conservative blog.
...which leaves you voting for?????
I’ve had about enough of this pitiful campaign, in particular Rong Paul. Luckily, in two weeks, I will have cast my vote and the attention will be on some other state.
I will be voting for Rick Santorum.
He needs to do something to get himself noticed and hold people’s attention. Frankly, when he starts talking, I get sleepy.
What with all the talk about Newt these days, I’ve taken a good look at both he and Santorum. I’d have to say that one big mistake (and I agree with you...it was) seems somewhat lacking as a reason for not considering him, when we can give Newt a pass on all he’s done to anger conservatives (and I don’t mean his family/personal peccadilloes).
These past few days I’ve come around to giving him consideration. I have no idea whether he’ll gain traction, but I wouldn’t be upset if he did. In fact, I’m beginning to hope he does.
I'm a ripper, not a tugger, and would just as soon get to our national implosion sooner rather than later.
Pennsylvania votes thought they were voting for Casey's father, a popular and principled former governor. What they got instead was a lap dog for ObaMao and the dumbest male member of the U.S. Senate.
Casey's current re-election strategy is to stay out of sight except for cameo appearances at certain pre-screened friendly audiences and not to say anything to really p*ss anybody off.
I hope he is ready to take a little of this exposure and wow us with his plans for this country.
I hope he surprises in Iowa.
I honestly don’t know why I clicked on this thread. Santorum has no more chance to be president than I do. Losing a senate seat is not a launching pad to the presidency. If he ever got into double digits in the national polls, the media would start to eviscerate him just like all the other candidates.
Besides all that, if he had red hair he would be a dead ringer for Howdy Dowdy.
“If my choice is between a ‘Rat and a RINO, I’ll vote for Barry.”
To even think about casting a vote for pro-abort Obama is utterly reprehensible.
Good grief. That isn’t even close. You must not have ever met him or even paid close attention to what he looks like to say something like that.
RE: Losing a senate seat is not a launching pad to the presidency
__________________________
Was losing a presidential election and THEN a gubernatorial race a sure sign that your career is over?
There was a man who had that dubious distinction. His name was Richard Nixon.
Was losing a Senatorial race a sure sign that your presidential career is over? There was a man who had that distinction and then went on to win the presidency two years later. His name — Abe Lincoln.
“He needs to do something to get himself noticed and hold people’s attention. Frankly, when he starts talking, I get sleepy.”
He comes across like a guy running for president of his 10th grade class - and losing.
Only diff between Rat and RINO is how long it takes us to go belly up. To me it makes good sense to hurry up and get it over with. And to have a Rat at the helm to pin it on.
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