BULLETIN: Earthquake Hits Vanuatu as Santorum Vows on National TV: ‘We’re Going to Surprise a Lot of People’ in Iowa

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Geologists, eschatologists and political observers took note Thursday when an earthquake struck the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu at the exact time that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said during an appearance on a U.S. television network that he would do “very, very well” in next month’s Iowa caucuses.

“It’s coming our way,” the former Pennysylvania senator told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “We’re the campaign that’s on the move. We’re the campaign that’s rising.”

Students of apocalyptic prophecies noted that, even as Santorum was speaking, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake rattled Vanuatu, a tiny achipelago of volcanic islands between Fiji and New Guinea.

“We will do well in Iowa — I have no doubt about that,” Santorum said during his Thursday interview with Mitchell. “We’re going to surprise a lot of people on [Iowa caucus] Election Day on January third.”

Thursday’s earthquake was the third to strike Vanuatu in the past five days. The former French colony was hit with 4.7 quakes on Wednesday and on Nov. 26, which most seismologists described as aftershocks of the 8.7-magnitude earthquake near Vanuatu on Nov. 11.

Asked by MSNBC’s Mitchell about his disagreements with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Santorum said the current GOP front-runner has “been jumping around a lot” on “very big, definining issues in Iowa and across the county,” including cap-and-trade legislation that would impact “lots of farmers in Iowa.”

Although no deaths resulted from the series of earthquakes that have recently shaken Vanuatu (known by Westerners as the New Hebrides prior to becoming an independent republic in 1980), disaster-relief organizations warned that tsunamis or other deadly catastrophes are possible if the long-dreaded “Big One” should hit next.

Recent polls in Iowa show Santorum in 7th place, although his strong grassroots campaign in the Hawkeye State has taken him to all 99 Iowa counties. A Catholic father of seven children, Santorum is staunchly supported by social conservatives, and recently gained the endorsement of Karen Testerman, a New Hampshire activist described by The Hill as a “powerful former . . . supporter” of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

The Santorum campaign had no immediate comment on speculation by one autodidactic religious scholar that the Vanuatu earthquakes may be a “biblical omen of cosmic significance.” However, a few hours before the 5.2-magnitude quake hit Thursday afternoon, Santorum spokesman Matt Benyon issued an “updated media advisory” announcing that six events have been added to the campaign’s “Faith, Family and Freedom Tour” of Iowa that begins Sunday afternoon.

 




 


 

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15 comments

  3. Do we have a tsunami warning from that Vanautu earthquake?  It might create a wave 30 miles high if what Stacy is saying is true about Santorum. 

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