I think Rick Santorum is a decent man, but I have no idea why he is running, and how he would have a chance in a much more competitive field this time compared to 2012 when he actually won Iowa. Mind you, I think the same thing about Rick Perry, Huckabee, etc. Who would Santorum appeal to in a general election?
Ishii
I think it might be because Rick is used to being an underdog, and he feels that maybe he can do something. Plus, Rick does seem to appeal to working Americans. I checked out Santorum’s book, Blue Collar Conservatives, from the library, and in the acknowledgements, Rick talked about how the Romney campaign did a a nice gesture to Rick. Santorum’s campaign never hired a pollster (his belief was that even if he had enough money to afford the poll, he had no money to take advantage of it, so why bother?), thus never having internal polling numbers of their own, so two senior members of the Romney campaign invited Rick over so Rick could see a presentation about the polling data Rick never had. Neil Newhouse, Romney’s pollster, had prepared a Powerpoint presentation and a single sheet of paper for Rick to see.
On the single sheet of paper was the responses for a poll taken a few days earlier in Pennsylvania. Newhouse had noticed that afternoon exit polls had been consistently underestimating Rick’s votes. Case in point, before the polls closed in the Alabama and Minnesota primaries, the Drudge Report and other outlets ran a story based on the afternoon exit polls, projecting Romney the winner in Mississippi and running a close second to Newt Gingrich in Alabama. Rick appeared to be coming third in both races. That night, Rick won Alabama by 5 percent and Mississippi by 2 percent.
As a result of this phenomenon, Newhouse began to ask a new question in the polls: “what time are you beginning to vote?”
According to the single sheet of paper that held the responses to Pennsylvania, Santorum had a 5 point lead among people who planned to vote before noon. Romney had a 4 point lead among people who planned to vote between noon and five pm. But for the people who planned to vote after five pm, Rick Santorum had an astounding 21 point lead! Santorum’s conclusion was that working Americans and busy moms who couldn’t vote during the day were supporting him by coming to vote for him when they could: at night.
So I won’t be surprised if Rick feels like he can target working class Americans and blue collar conservatives. He’s the underdog again, but if Rick can successfully re-brand himself, then who knows?
Anyway, do you have an idea who you’re going to support? I’ve been thinking about either Marco, Jeb, or Rick. It’s still early though, so we’ll see how this plays out. A lot can change in several months. Newt Gingrich was once considered a front runner in the last primary. Rick Perry was another one. But it was a different Rick who was the last serious contender that fell (well, technically Newt and Ron Paul were still running after Rick dropped out, but at that point, it didn’t really matter).
In a sense, politics is kinda like football. You can start trying to predict who’s going to the Super Bowl during the pre-season, but a lot of things can change. Some people ended up thinking that the Saints were Super Bowl contenders while the Cowboys would have a losing record; the exact opposite happened. Hope my football analogy makes sense.
) it will be a fascinating (sometimes horrifying) one to watch
IMO.
