Daily Santorum: No Drama

The heat of August and media glare appears to be getting to some of the GOP presidential hopefuls. The Jon Huntsman campaign's internal strife was laid bare in Politico this morning. Rick Perry isn't even in the race yet but he's being questioned for his general election liabilities and past clashes with Texas universities. Tim Pawlenty is pulling ads in Iowa and losing a top adviser.

By comparison, the Rick Santorum campaign is sailing smooth. All of its problems are external, as polls show him never gaining traction and the media snickers at puns on his Google problem. Nothing to report so far on internal clashes -- but then again, there's not a ton of curious national press surrounding his campaign.

ABC, though, is doing its best to push the Made in America story. After the World News spot, the network had Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing on its "Top Line" broadcast to express his righteous indignation that Santorum would ship his campaign T-shirts from the Dominican Republic:

“All you have to do is go to the Internet look up ‘American-made T-shirt and you can find them,” Paul said. “I have two here -- happy to give them to Rick Santorum and also to Newt Gingrich. We would be honored to have them wear it.”

“It’s also a poll-tested slogan, ‘keep it made in America -- made in the USA,’ ” he continued. “That's a pretty inexcusable freshman campaign mistake. These types of goods are widely available. …This is a really, really simple thing to correct.”

Stumping in Iowa yesterday, Santorum complained about the antagonistic press, according to the Carroll, Iowa Daily Times Harald: “They’re doing their very best to bury me before I can get started.”

Polling: The polls continue to show Our Rick at the back of the pack. In Florida Quinnipiac has him at 1 percent, tied for ninth with Huntsman. And a National Journal Hotline poll of so-called "Republican Insiders" -- conducted entirely within smoke-filled rooms, we hope -- ranks him the 11th most likely Republican to be nominated.

The Schedule: Iowa Sprint continues through Rock Rapids, Orange City, Sioux City and an address to the Public Educators of Iowa in West Des Moines.