Daily Santorum: Merry Rickmas
As you can see above, preparations are under way for Rick Santorum's Big Announcement at 11 a.m., making this something like Christmas Morning for the Daily Santorum. The first present, as captured in PG photog Mike Henninger's photo above from Somerset, is Rick's new slogan "The Courage to Fight for America." As far as we know, it can't be attributed to any liberal poets and the line plays off Santorum's pugnatious approach.
Expect a lot from Santorum today about fighting for his principles -- hey, Romney, he's talking about you -- in his big announcement and his eleventy billion media interviews. He already yakked it up with George Stephanopoulos on GMA and a few minutes ago he was on Glenn Beck's radio show, drawing plenty of praise from Beck as "a guy who stands by his convictions."
Santorum said his usual stuff about Americans "hooked up to the IV" of entitlements and the shame in how Paul Ryan was castigated not for taking away entitlements now, but for reforming them 10 years down the road. He also threw in a D-Day reference -- a speech preview, for sure -- in saying the country will be lost if we don't repeal Obamacare.
Beck replied that almost every candidate has said that (presumably meaning the hearty Ryan Plan endorsement) off the air, but not on the air to his knowledge. Beck told Rick "I love you" but that he suffers from "Duncan Hunter syndrome" -- Beck was a fan of the California congressman's bid in '08 but he never had a prayer of winning the nomination. Santorum gave his typical answer to the shopworn "Can you win?" question, noting that he has was elected as a conservative twice statewide in purple Pennsylvania.
After Santorum hung up, Beck's co-host asked if Rick assuaged any of those Hunter concerns and Beck said, eh, maybe. Beating Obama is the top concern he said but he added: "I want somebody that can win for my values."
Santorum is blazing through the right-wing and mainstream media today, with the New York Times scoring an interview as Rick strolled through Manhattan and again batted away talk that he's only the social issues guy:
“I have one major piece of legislation I passed, on partial-birth abortion, but I had two on foreign policy — the Syria Accountability Act and the Iran Freedom and Support Act, both of which were opposed by Bush and took me a year or more,” he said. He added: “I spent the last four years at the Ethics and Public Policy Center giving lectures all over the country on radical jihadism and the ‘Gathering Storm of the 21st Century.’ I haven’t done squat on moral, cultural issues.”
The Los Angeles Times' Maeve Reston, who covered Santorum in the Senate from the PG's D.C. Bureau, takes a crack as well this morning, following Rick through a typically active day in Iowa that began at 6 a.m. and talking to some Pennsylvania types including the always reclusive Ed Rendell:
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat who has worked closely with Santorum, said that's a reason why people who say he has no chance to win Iowa "are making a mistake."
"He's always been underestimated," Rendell said. "I would not count him out.
"But could he win a general election?" Rendell continued. "Could he carry Pennsylvania, California, Wisconsin and Michigan? Geez, he'd have a very uphill fight."
Note to Eddie: George W. Bush managed to win the presidency twice without any of those four states. But nice to hear from you.