Fifteen Facts ….. for Renewed Enthusiasm for Rick Santorum

A few days ago my high school friend who is an active Republican in Tampa, Florida sent me a Facebook message regretting her early primary vote for Romney, wishing she’d voted for Rick Santorum. Her sentiment joined a growing chorus.

Last year we had the opportunity to sit down at a small lunch meeting with Rick Santorum and, along with about 12 other guests, ask him questions about his views, policies and ideas. A conservative policy person’s dream! My husband and I left impressed that Rick Santorum is exceptionally well informed both politically and historically speaking, a conservative to the core, a very warm and likeable guy, and as deeply concerned about the direction our country is headed as most conservatives are.

As Newt and Mitt supporters battle over who is the true conservative, who has flip-flopped the most, who is reliable, who made the worst mistakes and who is most electable, I sense a quiet, renewed stirring of interest among Republicans, Tea Partiers and other conservatives for Rick Santorum.

Fifteen Facts about Rick Santorum’s bid worth considering:

  • Santorum has it right on every one of the basic conservative and Tea Party’s messages: fiscal conservatism, following the United States Constitution, limited government, low taxes, reducing regulation on businesses, supporting the free enterprise system and strong national defense.
  • His voting record includes voting for drilling in ANWR (energy independence!), for border security and other national defense imperatives (defense is the Commander-in-Chief’s number one job!), and he opposed TARP, the auto bailout (real fiscal conservatism!) and numerous other spending bills that some Republicans voted for.
  • His social conservatism will help meld the social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives, sometimes-disconnected siblings within the Republican Party family.
  • Santorum has rightfully pointed out that both Newt and Mitt backed the individual mandate that is the centerpiece of Obamacare, something Rick has not ever supported. That mandate issue is not minor--it is the core of the challenge to the constitutionality of Obamacare, as well as being one of the foremost affronts to free markets and future freedom in America.
  • The growing disgust over the Mitt vs. Newt, and Newt vs. Mitt ads that will be fodder for the Democrats in the fall may in part be feeding this buzz for Santorum. Serious conservatives (primary voters) want the party leaders to stop eating their own.
  • Santorum criticizes his opponents too, to be sure, but his attacks, to my sense, lack the ugly venom that both Newt’s and Mitt’s exude. They are factual, genuine. Santorum has offered some irrefutable and compelling critiques of Newt’s global warming/Nancy Pelosi embrace, and Mitt’s “Romneycare is very different than Obamacare” farce.
  • Santorum lacks Newt’s personal baggage. Rick Santorum is in a longtime, scandal-free marriage to the same woman. Voters who love Newt (and he is brilliant and passionate) must necessarily decide that on balance his other qualifications outweigh his personal journey. I think everyone deserves the opportunity to start over, even more than once, but marital infidelity does not sit well with anyone, especially conservative voters. The other Newt baggage, that he apparently “doesn’t play well with others” that brought even the likes of Senator Tom Coburn to critique Newt, is also not an issue with Rick Santorum.
  • While I deplore that some question whether Romney’s Mormonism makes him ineligible or unelectable, and totally disagree with that sentiment, Rick Santorum has no similar challenge, and right or wrong, Romney’s faith may hold some voters back.
  • Rick Santorum is not Ron Paul. He believes in a strong foreign policy and recognizes that indeed, radical Islam is an ongoing threat in today’s world, and he knows that only military will cause the militant jihadists to stand down. And Rick embraces the fiscal conservatism and limited government ideals that are among the very sane views Ron Paul stresses, and which his supporters truly coalesce around.
  • There is a sense that the battle between the top two is destroying what should be a phenomenal opportunity in 2012 to showcase the virtues of Republican values, in light of the destruction that Obama’s Democrat values have wreaked on our country.
  • Republicans all know---we cannot lose the 2012 Presidential race. Too much is at stake in our nation. Too much is at stake for the future of freedom and free markets.
  • Watching America, the job market and businesses wither on the vine under the assault of Obama’s taxing, regulating and spending practices anguishes many Americans. Obama’s clear disdain for the exceptionalism and greatness of America should be a Republican golden opportunity. Conservatives can hardly believe that we have not yet coalesced around a winner in the year that winning should be well within reach, maybe even similar to our 1980 win in the face of the economic and national “malaise” destruction Jimmy Carter inflicted on America.
  • Neither of our alleged top two Republican contenders has cornered clear and unequivocal top runner status, so perhaps we should all look at the other all-around conservative who may just be our best hope.
  • Buying into the Left’s and the media’s mantra of who is “just not electable” will get us nowhere. Each candidate has supporters who will exhort you to understand how the other guy is not electable. It gets circular—we are told someone is not electable so we do not vote for him or her in the primary---rendering him or her unelectable. There is enough baggage and to spare for any of the candidates, in both parties. We must not dance to the media’s and the Democrat’s not-electable tune.
  • Our ultimate goal is to remove the current Oval Office Occupier, and we all need to rally around the eventual Republican candidate, but now is our time to sift the chaff and wheat one more time, and be sure we choose the best Republican candidate.

Comments

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"A conservative policy person’s dream! "

--Depends on your definition of conservative. Bigger government is not conservative in my opinion.

"fiscal conservatism, following the United States Constitution, limited government, low taxes, reducing regulation on businesses, supporting the free enterprise system and strong national defense."

-- He's a serial earmarker, requesting billions of dollars during his time in the Senate, and not reversing his position on earmarks until he was out of Congress in 2010.

"His voting record includes voting for drilling in ANWR... (real fiscal conservatism!)..."

-- serial earmarker... as far as his TARP opposition, you're right, he didn't vote for any (other than the steel mill bailouts of 1999) and debt limit increases. The guy is a big gov. republican trying to disguise himself as a fiscal conservative.

"Rick Santorum is not Ron Paul. He believes in a strong foreign policy and recognizes... blah blah... and he knows that only military will cause the militant jihadists to stand down"

--  Islam is a threat because we made it one. "Blowback". Look it up.

"

"Republicans all know---we cannot lose the 2012 Presidential race. Too much is at stake in our nation. Too much is at stake for the future of freedom and free markets."

-- Agreed, but I dont see replacing a crony with a crony as a fix either.

"...And Rick embraces the fiscal conservatism and limited government ideals that are among the very sane views Ron Paul stresses..."

-- How is his record of supporting big government all the sudden thought of as being a fiscal conservative?


I will vote for Ron Paul, and so should you.

Debbie - not sure what he put in your Sweet Tea for lunch but please do not expect us to drinhk it too!

Tricky Ricky - Ricky The Rooster is very far from a fiscal conservative - he once made teh comment - search google - that I came as a deficit hawk but just couldn't leave the money there - easier to be fiscally conservative in a depression - not exact quote but conveys accurately teh context - he was favored by lobbyist - made it two times to teh top 20 most corrupt AND there were dems on that list as well

Ricky King of Earmarks" spent lots of our money - he lost teh election in PA by 18 pts - highes percentage ever for an incumbent - he campaigned against opponent for not living in his district but thats just what Trick Ricky did - just one of the resons he lost - solution - go to detox - vote for Romney
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