The number one complaint that I hear about Rick Santorum, Save Jerseyans?
He’s boring.
And maybe he isn’t the most exciting kid at camp. I suspect he’d readily concede that point. For God’s sake: he wears more sweater vests than Jon Corzine! Truthfully, Corzine didn’t get exciting until he left office and started losing large sums of money.
Money isn’t Rick’s strong suit. A Corzine millionaire he isn’t. Senator Santorum also lacks Mitt Romney’s million dollar smile and Newt Gingrich’s knack for grandiose zingers. That said, his wins last night in Missouri, Minnesota and especially Colorado injected some much-needed excitement into the Republican Primary. There’s something about this unassuming man from Western Pennsylvania that’s kept him alive in the face of long odds while more promising candidates (like well-heeled Perry and Tea Party-backed Bachmann) fell by the wayside.
Yes, he’s a warrior alright. He knows what he believe and isn’t afraid to say it. But can he articulate those bedrock conservative principles in an exciting and appealing way? Can he put a tingle in envelope lickers’ spines and flutters in the hearts of phone bankers? Enough so to overcome not just Mitt Romney’s rolodex but the President’s legions, too?
Look for clues in last night’s victory speech. I did:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhMjhtcfVI
Here are Santorum's biggest problems that he would face in the general election:
(1) It's tough to call for medical liability reform when your wife sucessfully received almost a million dollars from a chiropractor for pain and suffering.
(2) His stance on preventing a feeding tube from being removed from Terry Schiavo may have won some religous voters over but it ticked off almost everyone else.
(3) Santorum was a big supporter of going to war in Iraq and I think this will be a big negative with the voters. I don't think voters think we should have been there or that it has done any good.
(4) Santorum was involved in some questionable actions. Even his children were not living in Pennsylvania because he had essentially moved full-time to Virginia, he billed the local school district in Pennsylvania for more than $100,000 in tuition for a cyber charter school. (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_274635.html)
(5) Santorum supports the right of states to ban contraceptives and even indicates his support for such laws.