Santorum doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. He’s a niche candidate, the Catholic ethnic candidate. The country’s only about 1/4 Catholic and even if half of those are Republicans which I doubt, he loses. The rest of the country doesn’t “get” Santorum; to them he looks like he has eyes on the side of his head or something.
That’s kind of remarkable considering his Senate elections in Pennsylvania certainly weren’t those of a “niche” or “ethnic catholic” candidacy.
It wasn’t too long again the “no chance” meme was being thrown out there against Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann. Each had their chances. Rep. Bachmann and Mr. Cain both blew their chances with bad campaigns.
Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul have no chance in this election. Ron Paul’s foreign policy is out-of-bounds and Jon Huntsman was part of the Obama Administration. Even if there was a brokered convention nobody is going to nominate Ron Paul for the presidency.
When you start looking for a compromise between “electable” (resistant to personal humiliation and demonization by the left-wing cranks in the popular media), “reliable” (doing something other than taking yet-another half-way step to communism and the culture of death), and “vocal” (speaks to the issues, takes the fight to them) you aren’t left with a whole lot of options.
Newt is very good at the vocal part and is moderately reliable on the 3-legged stool, but his “baggage” is oppressive.
Mitt has a very electable image but lacks the accomplishments that mark him as a reliable conservative and kills any sort of voice he might have by hiding behind non-committed, poll-driven, plastic language. Frankly, he reminds me of 2008 McCain and 1996 Dole - long on character, “maverick”-or-“moderate” on policy, no fire in the belly campaigning, a perfect recipe for losing the general election by about 5% thanks in large part by icing your own base.
Herman Cain was vocal on the economy, up-beat, and worked for some conservative causes. He proved to lack both voice and vision on most other issues and he couldn’t protect his electable image.
Rick Perry has electable public character and fair reliability on issues, but his public voice is terrible.
Michele Bachmann was modestly electable - no real baggage. While reliable on the issues, her inexperience left her prone to amateurish gaffes and negative over-reaches that made her look alternatively vicious or foolish…
Ron Paul has great personal credentials, a strong voice, and is rock-solid reliable on federalism and small government. He’s a federalist squish on the culture of life, but at least he opposes Roe v. Wade. Then you let him get himself worked up over foreign policy and he scares the daylights out of people.
Jon Huntsman is the typical Rockafeller / “reaching across the aisle” RINO technocrat that Democrats love to use as leverage against the GOP.
Sen. Santorum has the same clean-cut background as Mitt Romney - no big skeletons. He’s not as slick, but he also doesn’t come across as a plastic candidacy. He’s been awarded the Order of the Knights of Malta by the Holy See and he’s got a conservative voting record the length of your arm. He makes no apologies for being staunchly Pro-Life, pro-America, and anti-Big Government.
Frankly I can’t see any compelling reason to vote for Mitt Romney over Rick Santorum. The most pressing advantages Mitt seems to have are his bank roll and his name recognition. Rick Santorum even has Romney-caliber hair! Meanwhile if you’re more interested in seeing a conservative get the GOP nod than fighting the Illuminati or landing the most condescending zingers possible on Obama and his pet media I think Newt and Dr. Paul’s support would be better spend on Sen. Santorum as well.
In a time of crisis I’d rather have someone stern and principled them someone who smile the whole time and never tells anyone what they don’t want to hear. In some sense that’s what Newt Gingrich is riding on right now - eloquently telling Obama, Lefty Media, and Occupy Wall Street exactly where they can go and what they can do when they get there. The “aw shucks, don’t worry about it,” politicians have already ruined our education system and exploded our deficit.
Here’s hoping Rick Santorum finds his Churchill voice before the media machine completely buries him for not providing amusing enough copy. He’s at least one candidate we can count on to give us a good Supreme Court replacement for Justice Kennedy.