The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Sincerity, Courage and Other Secrets Behind the Surprising Santorum Surge

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | 73 Comments

Rick Santorum and his wife Karen greet supporters
at a barn near Roland, Iowa, Aug. 6, 2011

How many times on the campaign trail did I hear Rick Santorum describe himself as “Steady Eddie”? Not the flashiest guy at the dance, he’d say, but at the end of the evening, he was the one the girls were proud to bring home to meet their mother. Back when he was still in single digits in Iowa, Santorum gave that little talk at nearly every campaign event, to reassure Republican voters that no matter what the polls said, and no matter what they were being told about “electability,” they should listen to their hearts and vote for the “consistent conservative.”

Seems like a million years ago, doesn’t it? I’m thinking back to that August afternoon in a barn amid the cornfields near Roland, Iowa, when I showed up on a Saturday as a favor to Lisa Graas, to cover her favorite candidate, the guy nobody believed could win. Now take a look at the headlines today:

Poll: Rick Santorum takes
slight lead in GOP race
– CBS News

Santorum Catches Up With Romney in New Poll
– New York Times

59% of Catholics Disapprove
of Obama’s Job Performance
– Rasmussen Reports

That last headline should serve to remind you of something I kept in mind back when nobody else was paying attention to Santorum: Blue-collar Catholics are a vital “swing” constituency, and a Republican who can appeal to those voters is always formidable, whether in a primary or a general election. People kept talking about the evangelical vote in Iowa, but there are a quite a few Catholics in Iowa, too, and once they “came home” to Santorum in the closing weeks of the caucus campaign, that helped boost him up to double digits in the polls. And then, just about the time he pulled even in Iowa with Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, a lot of other Republican voters said, “Hey, let’s take another look at Steady Eddie.”

Now that we’re in the midst of what I’ve called “Santorum’s Second Surge,” Steady Eddie is getting another look from a lot of people, including liberals like Jonathan Chait, who wonders if Mitt the Moderate is really more “electable” than Extreme Santorum.

Bottom line of Chait’s analysis: It’s really a lot harder to judge “electability” in advance of the general election campaign and Santorum might be more trouble for Obama than most experts imagine.

Of course, such a question takes us off into an unpredictable future. Santorum still has an enormous uphill fight if he’s going to beat Romney, and we’ll have to wait and see if Santorum can withstand the tsunami of negative attack ads that Team Mitt will inevitably unleash against him. Meanwhile, however, we find Santorum earning a certain grudging admiration from unexpected sources:

“I’ve wondered about him and the whole concept of working women and family. But stylistically, which is a part of the game . . . he has something that Mitt Romney doesn’t. There is a connect. I mean, I don’t agree with anything he says, but I like the guy.”
– Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC

This is something I’ve noticed with some of the young liberal reporters who were “embedded” on the Santorum campaign: They disagreed with him without hating him. Why? I think it might be that “Steady Eddie” factor. Even when his campaign seemed utterly hopeless, Santorum just kept on going, and he never budged an inch on the issues. Maybe you think he’s an “extremist,” but he is a sincere extremist — he really believes what he believes in, and isn’t just pandering — and he also shows a stubborn courage, sticking to his guns no matter what, even when he knows his views are unpopular.

It’s that kind of stubbornness that wins Santorum admiration, and sometimes even surprising agreement, from people you would never expect to hear praising him. (Barbara Walters? Hello?)

One more thing: America loves an underdog.

If by some miracle Santorum actually ends up winning the Republican nomination in Tampa, he’ll be one of the biggest comeback stories in American political history. Defeated for re-election to the Senate in 2006, he entered the presidential campaign with seemingly impossible odds against him. The mainstream media ignored him and, with few exceptions, the pundits gave him no chance at all. In the first six months after he announced, he raised less than $1 million, and finished 2011 with less than $300,000 cash on hand. Just three weeks ago, many people were still saying Santorum might as well quit. And now . . .

Well, a lot of flashier guys have come and gone from the 2012 GOP field, but Steady Eddie’s still at the dance, isn’t he?

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Category: Election 2012, Rick Santorum

Comments

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  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike G.

    I would be remiss if I didn’t mention these facts about Santorum found at http://phoebe53.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/its-no-secret-santorum-is-a-serial-hypocrite/

    But if Santorum is the eventual nominee, I’ll cast my vote for him. I’m just sayin’.

  • Jeff Y.

    But he doesn’t believe in limited government. It’s time to admit it. This is a post-constitutional society and a post-constitutional Republican Party. Santorum will fit right in.

  • TR

    You’re a dreamer.  How about looking at facts for a change?
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/santorum-pitch-undermined-by-senate-loss.html

  • Anonymous

    It’s amazing how, in consideration of the available alternatives, so many people are still nitpicking about Santorum’s perceived shortcomings.

    You may re-read the entire piece I’ve written and notice that there is no real discussion of Santorum from an ideological perspective. His negatives in that regard are sufficiently well-known that I find no reason to discuss them here. I’ll leave it to his many enemies to do that.

    What I’m trying to get people to focus on are Santorum’s advantages as a candidate and a campaigner, in the narrow framework of (a) can he beat Romney and (b) if he beats Romney, can he then beat Obama. So if you’re most interested in beating Romney and Obama, there are good reasons to say that he’s your guy. And if he’s your guy, then let’s hear  it for Steady Eddie, who’s having a very good week.

  • Paul Zummo

    Jeff, you’d fit right in at Little Green Aceballs.  Just ignore the man’s record, and pretend that he’s some kind of statist, this way you get to keep bitching about how awful all the candidates are.  And so when you’ve thrown every single candidate under the bus for failing to live up to some unachievable vision of perfection, you wind up with the least conservative candidate.

    Good luck with that.

  • Paul Zummo

    It’s amazing how, in consideration of the available alternatives, so many people are still nitpicking about Santorum’s perceived shortcomings.

    For a good chunk of the electorate, it’s zombie Reagan or bust.  Then again, with these clods, they’d probably cast off Reagan as some kind of RINO anyway.

  • Anonymous

    I admit, it’s his dogged sincerity that’s attracting me to him.  He’s taken some positions I disagree with, but I can’t help but respect him for staying with them. A complete contrast to Mitt, who may agree with my positions right now, but hasn’t in the past, and may not in the future. Santorum simply has integrity – which I hold as supremely important, and of which Obama has little.

  • http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/ Evi L. Bloggerlady

    Rick Santorum is a 1000 times better than Barack Obama.  Unfortunately if he does not focus on the economy and keeps taking pot shots at potential allies, he is not going to be the nominee or (if he manages to pull that out) will not win the general.  And I do not want him acting like Romney, I want him acting like Ronald Reagan.  Cheerful, upbeat, and focused on a core economic reforms he will push as president.   We all know Newt will implode.  His supporters need to go somewhere.  They do not want to go to Mitt.  Ron Paul supporters need to be sucked up too so they do not go third party or for Obama.  Santorum just needs to be a solid cheerful conservative who makes it clear his focus is on 

    Say what you will about all the failures of the Herman Cain, he was the happy warrior in the Ronald Reagan mode.  I miss him.  

  • http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/ Evi L. Bloggerlady

    Stacy:  I want Santorum to be able to win the nomination and the general.  He is hardly by ideal conservative candidate, but he is potentially far better than the alternatives.  But this recent stuff of Rick Santorum taking on libertarians and tea partiers is scaring me because it is an unnecessary fight.  It hurts his campaign and there is no good reason for doing this.  They are not the opponent.  Even Ron Paul is really not the opponent (he is wrong on a bunch of issues, but he is right on many issues too).  Be presidential Rick, the fight is with Barack Obama.  The Democratic Party is our opponent.  They are the ones we must take control of the federal government from.  You need to give us a vision that you are capable of taking the fight to Barack Obama and winning the general election.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kat-Wells-Anderson/100001128516686 Kat Wells Anderson

    Santorum is not Reagan and if people were paying attention; they would understand that it is Santorum we NEED at this time; not Reagan.  I’ve been listening to Rick since last July and if there is one thing I know; he’s NOT going negative or picking on Mitt. His comments are carefully chosen to give attention to details that anyone who is listening with an ear to hear will catch. He will cheer up when this part of the campaign is behind him. Let me see how cheerful you are with months on end of 3-4 hours of sleep a night.

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    you may have a good point: if he can take on the criticisms of him as a social con and twist it around then he could win a lot of people over

    hmmm, “I don’t want to see my daughters punished with a society that does not see them as beautiful individuals, rather plastic sex dolls…and I don’t want to see my sons devalued  into mindless horn dogs by the same token…is it so wrong to want to see people cherished for their individual beauty”?
    Throw something like that up against the “punished with a baby” comment, and all those women voters his detractors are so afraid will be driven away by him may not be so driven away (or: see Mr. Mccain’s post down below ;) ).
    What could be more liberating than to be seen, and cherished, as an individual? (that’s for the libertarians)

    That’s perhaps how he can keep responses to the attacks positive (as well as pointing out where the current status quo hates the individual)

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    That bit you did on the Randians was pretty good, and pretty spot on.

  • http://twitter.com/ccsunnydazey amanda citizen

    Santorum is the most consistent, conservative candidate we have. I know he can defeat Obama and I cant wait to see it happen! Santorum 2012!!

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

     Everybody looks better if you overlook their shortcomings.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

     So, which spending did he oppose, then?

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike G.

    I’m not saying that Santorum is necessarily a “bad” candidate and he’s not my first choice, but the things pointed out about his political record are going to be brought out by the Democrats, if not by the Romney campaign before it’s all said and done.

  • http://twitter.com/richard_mcenroe richard mcenroe

    The Tea Partiers are moving to Rick, whatever the hustlers with the Tea Party Patriot Express® logos say.  There are many areas on which the libertarians can agree with and empower Rick, and others in which they will have to rely on the Constitution, Congress and Courts to dissent.  The vital difference they need to recognize between Rick and the Hawaiian Huckster is that Rick Santorum will obey those legal restrictions.

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    I think it would be worthwhile for Santorum to at least listen to the libertarians and vice versa (and be civil about it — some haven’t been; this is a problem).
    Perhaps both may find that neither is as extreme and both are willing to compromise and actually are in agreement at least on some things.

    At the very least come to the realization that what is going on now is ruinous to everyone (but the elect set) and it’s better to get along against a common opponent.
    Someone please arrange  beer summit or something!

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     Or if you pretend they are totally the opposite of what they are?

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Sixty one percent of the American people believe insurance companies should be forced by law to offer contraceptive coverage. Forget the fucking religious aspects of all that. Just think about that. Don’t even worry about whether or not they have to offer it at no charge or whether they can add a charge. The point is, well if you can’t see it there’s no point in me explaining it. So I’ll just sum it up this way-

    We’re fucked!

  • http://twitter.com/FairTaxNancy Nancy Gatchel

    I believe he’s our best shot. I rather imagine he’s liking the fact that people are truly ready for smaller government, something he probably wishes we had years ago. 

    Well written article. Assesses accurately what is taking place.

    And frankly, I’d rather have a “Steady Eddie” than anyone that ever supported an individual mandate or global warming hysteria (like Mitt and Newt).  

  • http://twitter.com/Phoebe6853 Phoebe Figalilly

    Yes, his support of the PATRIOT Act and its reauthorization, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the legislation that created the department of Homeland Security, has said that he would have voted for NDAA and most likely supports the 30,000 drones is definitely something that all the little sheep can respect. 

    Does anyone care that he favors all these freedom grabbing laws or does the fact that he’s a Catholic trump freedom? 

    Voting for him because he’s Catholic is as bad as voting for Obama because he’s black.

  • Pingback: PPP Polling: Santorum First Candidate to Challenge Romney on ‘Electability’

  • Drek

     Not a whole hell of a lot……….

    Santorum went along to get along.

    The only issue that caused him to pipe up usually was abortion, and all things abortion.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     What makes you think people are ready for a smaller government? You do know there’s more to that than cutting taxes I hope. There even more to it than reforming entitlements. Hell, there’s even more to it than ending entitlements. It actually involves eventually phasing out hundreds of thousands of federal employees, substantially reducing and in many cases outright eliminating government agencies and even cabinet departments. It entails actually returning power to the states when it comes to those powers not specifically granted the federal government. Because believe it or not, until you do ALL that, then cutting taxes is not only not good enough, its not even desirable.

    But it will never happen, because when you get right down to the nitty gritty, most people unfortunately don’t want that, and both of our political parties are just fine with that status quo.

  • Dan

     You nitpicked Gingrich, yet spared Santorum.

    Of the two men, one turned a party that wasn’t just a minority, but possessed a much more crippling minority mindset, and turned that very same party into a majority, a force to be reckoned with.

    Santorum rapidly moved on from the House to the Senate, where he was much more rapidly co-opted by Trent Lott to be his chela, his own body-man.

    I can’t think of a single piece of legislation that got everybody to stand up and take notice that Santorum pushed through, and that’s in either House.

    Yet you still profess ignorance why some of us shrug our shoulders at Santorum?  Moreover, for a lawyer,  shouldn’t have Santorum grilled Romney better when he had the chance twice to take him to task over first, the way he rammed same sex marriage through, and secondly, the details of Romneycare.

    Yes, Santorum HAS advantages.

    But they are offset, more than offset by his fixation on abortion, same sex marriage, and yes, because he is fixated on this too, ——- contraception.  HIS OWN WORDS delineate into detail that he fully intends to take his crusade about contraception to public.

    I’m not interested in “steady eddy.”

    I want bold ideas, pushed by guys with imagination.

    Santorum’s idiotic notion of ceding dominance in aerospace, in space development, to enemies of the country, to enemies of freedom, ALONE disqualifies him from consideration.

    Just like Cain, you’ve lost your perspective because you got way, WAY too close to him and his family.

    Step back, take a good and healthy look at a guy who  desperately wants to ram social considerations down the throats of an unwilling electorate.

    WHAT has he ever run?

    What experience as an executive does he possess?

    Just think for a moment of Gingrich’s life long study and understanding of war and strategy!  Does that count for nothing with you?

  • Dan

    I wouldn’t vote for Rick Santorum as Attorney General of the United States!

    And even then Rudy Giuliani is infinitely better qualified.

     

  • Staubdriver69

    Go Rick go!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500116218 Jason Ambrosino

    You posted a blog site as “facts”…just saying

  • Pam in OH

    Drek – first of all, Rick Santorum authored AND pushed through legislation to end partial-birth abortions.  He was instrumental in writing and passing welfare reform.  That’s just two instrumental pieces of legislation which I can think of off the top of my head.  So, yes, he DID accomplish some important things as a senator.  Second, Rick has NEVER said he would campaign against contraception!!!  He has been VERY clear on this – while he personally does not agree with it, he would NEVER take away the right to use it.  He only opposes the types of “contraception” which are, in fact, abortifacients (i.e. the “morning-after” pill).  Abortion is NOT contraception and should not be thought of as such.  Third, while we can agree that space exploration is important, what’s ALSO important is that we are more than $16 trillion in debt right now!!!  Just like any family on the brink of bankruptcy, we as a nation need to carefully assess our priorities, which means that many good, useful government programs (as well as a lot of wasteful ones) need to be eliminated or passed on to the private sector in order for us to get our fiscal house in order!  I appreciate that you seem to be a Newt Gingrich supporter, but it is my opinion that we need a strong, steady conservative like Rick Santorum for President.

  • http://twitter.com/richard_mcenroe richard mcenroe

    What in Santorum’s record is so horrible that it overmatches the utter criminality of Barack Obama?

  • http://twitter.com/richard_mcenroe richard mcenroe

    Drek is a troll.  As the old Spanish saying goes, “He that washes an ass’s head wastes his time and his soap.”  Drek is not interested in honest discussion; Wombat has already outed his aliases in another thread. He wants banning; we can just ignore him.

    I will say though, that he is the epitome of a supporter for his preferred candidate Newt Gingrich.

  • Voter

    He will beat Romney and has a good shot at beating Obama.  Most people barely know him yet.  And he does have a solid jobs plan.  From reading some of the replies on this thread, it is obvious that people have not listened to him in the debates because he has some very good proposals and that is why you see blue-collar workers turning to him…

  • http://www.facebook.com/alex.frey.pattaya Alex Frey

    Sincerity? Are you guys suffering from memory loss? Look at his damn record before you destroy America.  He voted for Planned Parenthood, he voted 8 times to raise the debt ceiling, he voted against raising the minimum wages 13 times,  he campaigned for Mitt Romney in 2008, Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable. Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea.Do your due diligence and actually look into his record instead of listening to a politicians speeches.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1486142081 Daniel Tamburello

    Santorum has a unique ability to get people to like him who don’t agree with him on everything (democrats/Rinos) and to connect with voters on a personal level like no other candidate. 

  • scarymatt

    I can’t think of anything. But that’s not really the question in front of us.  Does Santorum’s support of unions and other big government stuff weigh heavier than Mitt’s train full of baggage?

    Is Santorum really a consistent conservative?  Clearly not.  That doesn’t mean he isn’t better than all of the alternatives.

    So, if RSM’s description of Steady Eddie is correct, do we get the Steady union support and big government “conservatism” or the consistent conservative?

    This only highlights the importance of what happens to Congress.  Given the current candidates, it’s clear that we aren’t going to get a nominee with a consistent history of small government conservatism.

  • Barbbtx

     Rick never took on the tea party. That was deliberately taken out of context. He did take on the extreme libertarians infiltrating the Republican Party AND the Tea Party. It was made to sound like he was worried about the Republican party being taken over BY the tea party.

  • Wombat_socho

    Defeatist Trotskyite scum!

  • Wombat_socho

    You’re right. We should just kill ourselves now and end the agony. You first.

  • Wombat_socho

    Yes! All of this is MUCH worse than another four years of Obama! You’ve sure convinced me!

  • scarymatt

    Absolutely.  While I personally have no moral problem with contraception (abortifacients are a different story), I have serious problems with these mandates outside of the religious issue.

    While I wholeheartedly agree that this is trampling on religious freedom (in ways that city hall manger displays do not), that objection unfortunately obscures the broader issue of the government compelling private citizens in their voluntary private dealings with other private citizens.

    And the point there is that perhaps this is some sort of political jiu-jitsu to reframe the Obamacare debate and sidestep the minefield of federal totalitarianism altogether.

  • PhillyCon

    Is this from that Erick Erickson hit piece?  You also leave out ending welfare as an entitlement.  No one has done that, and he wrote the bill while  a House member.

    You also leave out his Gang of Seven history.  

  • PhillyCon

    LOL.  Wombat, I like your style.

  • BeckyInLouisiana

    yup, and let’s get to it. federal employees NEED to be cut.  PERIOD.  so does everything else you said.  LET’S GO.  LET’S GET IT DONE.  I PICK RICK.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

     We are, TPT, but the sane ones of us knew that before we decided to fight.  But fight we did and are continuing to do because it is the right thing to do.

    The chances of us winning are slim, but any moral person has a duty to fight for the good.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Thus spake Dcmick.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere
  • PhillyCon

    Let your heart not be weary by doing good …. we are called to that, and if one is a student of history, it has remained true throughout the most darkest of times.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Well said.

  • ranchdancer

    Santorum can not and will not beat Obama…the media has decided that Santorum is the best bet for Obama to win against.  It will be a land slide for Obama if Santorum gets the nod.

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