Dossier: Rick Santorum

Political resume: Santorum was elected to the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 18th District in 1990, serving two terms before moving up to the U.S. Senate in 1994. He won re-election in 2000 but lost badly in 2006. According to RealClearPolitics.com Rick averages 2.6% in recent polls, placing him eighth out of nine. However, his support has increased in recent weeks.

On campaign finance/election reform (three points): He made mostly correct votes on this subject while in the Senate, and has a long enough body of work that I’m comfortable giving him two points.

On property rights (five points): Back in 2005 Rick termed the Kelo decision as “undermining people’s fundamental rights to property.” I think he gets it, so I’ll give him the five points.

On the Second Amendment (seven points): With perhaps one or two exceptions, he has a good gun record so I’ll give him six points.

On education (eight points): He may be coming around to sell himself to conservatives, but Rick’s recent call to eliminate the Department of Education comes on the heels of a voting record too enamored with federal control. He only gets two points for his efforts.

On the Long War/veterans affairs (nine points): While it’s not very detailed in scope, his policy page and this statement would lead me to believe he’d make the right decisions on the Long War. I grant him seven points.

On immigration (eleven points): He ignores the issue on his website, but his impassioned plea against amnesty in 2006 should count for something. I’ll count it as five points.

On energy independence (twelve points): Rick sees energy independence as a job creation issue. But he favors the “all of the above” approach generally held by Republicans and correctly states we should “put aside our dreams of ‘green jobs.’” The voting record isn’t bad, although I do object to one vote in particular. So I’ll grant him seven points.

On entitlements (thirteen points): His vision of entitlements is to “reform” and not eliminate. He’s absolutely right when he says the entitlement ‘addiction’ is bad for the country, but doesn’t go far enough to end it. We need more like cold turkey for the younger generation – including myself. He gets seven points.

On trade and job creation (fourteen points): Rick has come up with a common sense plan to get America’s economy moving again, with an emphasis on manufacturing. But there’s a fly in the ointment given Santorum isn’t always a free trade advocate. Still, he has some good concepts and they’re worth about eleven points.

On the role of government (fifteen points): If you look at what he states and the record, one could conclude Rick is in favor of low taxes. But those lower rates assume an extension of the current system, and the fact he sought to tinker with the code to promote a certain behavior makes me wonder how serious he would be about truly reforming the system as a whole. It’s a problem I haven’t seen him reconcile to my satisfaction, so I’m only giving him five points here.

Intangibles (up to three points): Rick covers the social conservative bases of being pro-life and for marriage between a man and a woman. But he takes the marriage aspect to the extent of wanting a Constitutional amendment, and I think that goes too far. He’s also been a flip-flopper on ethanol subsidies, which is a non-starter with me. Yet he also supports Israel, so he’s pretty much a wash in this category.

Total (maximum, 100 points): When taken together, Rick picked up 57 points. It’s a total that I thought at first glance could be higher, but the problem I see with him is one of saying anything to get votes.

Santorum seems sincere on a number of issues, but when the game was on the line Rick stood with the establishment rather than for the conservative cause. Take his support for Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2004 or his bashing of TEA Party darlings Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul – both of these I wrote on previously. He’s continued his criticism now on frontrunner Rick Perry. It’s understandable given his place in the polls, but I expect more than just another negative campaign – especially when it’s been aimed at his own party rather than the opponent.

Rick has a small base of supporters thanks to his social conservatism, so I imagine he’s going to pin his hopes on a strong showing in Iowa and South Carolina and hope to consolidate support from other similar candidates he manages to outlast – the two immediately ahead of him in the polls, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich, could be among those he draws from if either can’t advance past Iowa or New Hampshire. Since he has some support from those who liked Mike Huckabee, it’s not surprising he’s using a similar strategy since Mike was the last man standing against John McCain.

But McCain eventually won out, and I suspect Rick Santorum won’t be the eventual nominee.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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