Print

Daily Santorum: Iowa eyeballs

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Old TV

Rick Santorum's tour of all 99 Iowa counties is complete, and he's on track to make more visits around the state than any other GOP candidate. From Fox News:

The tried and true formula for winning statewide contests in Iowa has been (A) visit all 99 counties, (B) build organizations in all 99 counties and (C) turn-out the vote in all 99 counties.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will be able to check-off (A) from that list Wednesday.

Santorum's campaign meet-and-greet in Maquoketa, in Jackson County will mark the 99th Iowa county visited.

He's been getting a lot of media coverage in the state, though some of it has veered off course. Like this story from the Des Moines Register on an investment that didn't work out for the ex Senator, marrying tech with conservative causes:
A friend of Santorum started a company promoting his program that allowed parents to do "scene-level editing" of television shows for DVR playback. For Santorum, a father of seven, it seemed a perfect solution.

"There's a lot of pressure on kids to watch the popular programs to see what's on. It's part of the discussion in schools and things like that," he said, "(W)e see the culture imposing its will, if you will, on the children of America through television as well as computers and the Internet."

Santorum became president of the small company – around 20 or so people, he said. But cable companies didn't want parents able to dictate what content viewers inevitably saw and failed to show interest.

The company, which Santorum didn't name, pursued funding from outside investors in September of 2008 – right when Wall Street began to crumble. The project fell through months later. Santorum doesn't regret his involvement and said technology may still be pursued, he said.
The big event in Iowa this week is the state GOP Ronald Reagan dinner Friday night, which will be broadcast on CSPAN2.
Finally, Santorum gets no love from the liberal Nation mag, which notes his emotional talks about his daughter Bella have not translated into support of disability rights (including heightened protections through the Americans with Disabilities Act).

Join the conversation: