Daily Santorum 4/6/11

In the midst of all this quibbling about entitlements, Rick Santorum is worried there's too much talk about sacrifice and not enough hope positivity.

In an interview with NBC's David Gregory for a Web series, Santorum had high praise for Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, which essentially privatizes Medicare and turns Medicaid into a block program for the states (though it doesn't really address Social Security). But the emphasis, according to RS, is too much on what people are giving up. Gregory asks Santorum what a candidate must do to defeat President Obama, to which the former Penn Hillsian replied that he or she must be a premium-grade communicator with a sunny side.

I think the model is someone who can paint the picture as to where we're going to go as Americans in a different direction than what the president has. I think communication, being a good vision-caster, painter of a picture and being able to lay it out to the American public. ... People want to know that what they're doing when they're engaged in a common enterprise that there's some positive outcome. That they're not doing this, we're not asking people to eat their spinach. What we're asking them to do is to participate in self-governance and to do their duty as a citizen and help this country.

The Hill's GOP12 has a piece up compiling all Santorum's quotes attacking his potential rivals, casting him as "the attack dog." In discussing the field with Gregory, Santorum doesn't take any direct shots but talks about how Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee not getting in officially so far (though not naming names) has left the field wide open.

The big part of that is really the fact that the, quote, favorites -- and the favorites would be the folks who have been on a national stage before, who have ran before or have been on a national ticket, you know who those people are -- have decided not to get engaged. And so when the favorite is sort of not doing anything it creates a vacuum and most everybody in the race is pretty far down, so any one person entering the race doesn't make the race go. The race goes when the bigger players decide to get in and since they haven't so far, it created a vacuum that so far collectively no one's been able to fill and that's why we're seeing this.

Other fun bits from the interview: Santorum noting, when asked about whether Ryan's proposal was political suicide, how he campaigned for President Bush's failed Social Security privatization: "I've been out there spinning the chamber of the gun against my head on entitlements for a long time." He also talks hockey smack on behalf of the Pens against the Capitals fan, noting that the Caps' playoff record against the boys from Pittsburgh is less than stellar and proclaiming Marc-Andre Fleury "the hottest goalie in hockey."

Polling: As for that wide open field, Santorum still sits comfortably in the rear. A Neighborhood Research survey of likely Iowa caucus-goers has him in 10th place, with 1.3 percent of the vote, behind even Herman Cain (though he's ahead of Haley Barbour).

The Schedule: Today Santorum is in Colorado Springs, of all places, touring the U.S. Olympic Team training facility then headlining a GOP dinner. Tomorrow he'll be in Reno, Nev., before heading to California on Friday and South Carolina once again on Saturday.