#7, about the closest thing to "generic Republican" is true for Rick. However, while that's helping him in the primary it will not help him in the general.
Here are some reasons against Rick Santorum:
1. He voted to confirm Sonya Sotomayer to the 2nd Circuit, fast tracking her to the Supreme Court where she was Obama's First Choice. Consider McCain did not. Is this a conservative judicial record?
2. He proposed and voted for $550 million on top of a $900 million Amtrak budget. Is this fiscal conservatism?
3. Headed "The K Street Project" with felon Tom DeLay to recruit for and build ties between the GOP and career Beltway lobbyists. This is the swamp the Tea Party wants to drain; it's the foundation of crony capitalism. This Medicare Part D supporter was so important to "Big Pharma," a internal memo at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline said his loss "creates a big hole that we need to fill." Is this a reformer?
4. 18-point loss in Pennsylvania, the worst for an incumbent senator in over 25 years. The voters who knew him best, his constituents for a dozen years, wanted him gone for good. He lost 61% of women. Is this electability?
5. He's does Big Labor's bidding voting against national right-to-work and for every federal minimum wage increase. Is this conservative?
6. His own miniature Solyndra, he helped secure a $100m loan guarantee for a mutli-national oil company's PA coals-to-liquids plant that's never been built. He was lobbied by Bob Ashner, PA's top GOP power broker, who earned $1m for his work. Is this crony capitalism? 7. Santorum bilked a Pennsylvania school district out of $72,000 to pay for home "cyberschooling" of five of his kids ... in Virginia. This scandal and his legalistic defense of hit contributed to his 2006 loss. While ruled legal, is this moral or crass self-interest?
8. His charity Operation Good Neighbor (2001-07), illegally never registered with PA, doled out just 36% of income as grants, far less than the 75% of responsible causes. I'm sure it's coincidence the charity which spent most of its money on lobbyists, aides and fundraisers closed after he was defeated for reelection. Is this what Tea Party activists want?
9. His "leadership PAC" called "American's Foundation" also played funny money games. Only gave 18% made it to candidates, far below similar PACs.
10. A $500,000 mortgage for his Leesburg mansion came from a private bank run by a big campaign donor. The program was only for high-wealth investors in the trust; how did Santorum qualify?
11. He is dishonest about healthcare mandate history. In 1992, his "medisave accounts" House bill required individuals buy high deductible insurance coverage. As a senate candidate in 1994 he supported healthcare mandates for individuals and for employers. As recently as last night he claimed he's never supported mandates while saying he was "honest with the American People."
This list just starts to look at Santorum's record and vet him as he should be. Many of these are all things well covered by the PA press during his senate career and you know Democrats will exploit them effectively as they did in 2006.