A number of conservatives who find themselves frustrated that they may very well have to choose between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich are taking a second look at former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.
Unlike Speaker Gingrich, Santorum made the wiser decision to go directly to upcoming caucus, primary, and super Tuesday states as opposed to spending too much time in Nevada after the Florida primary. Santorum made an excellent campaign move. It is now time for him to show GOP voters he actually has what it takes to be a leader not just a legislator.
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While Mr. Santorum appears to cover the majority of conservative bullet points that many voters in the GOP primary are looking for, there seems to be a hesitancy about giving Mr. Santorum the same full support and energy that boosted Texas Governor Rick Perry, former business executive Herman Cain, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Ron Paul, Speaker Gingrich, and Gov. Romney to the top of the national polls at some point.
In fact, many conservatives will say that Santorum has done the best job in pointing out the biggest flaws in “Romneycare” during the debates than any other candidate. So why has that not translated into more of a boom for Mr. Santorum in the polls? Although Rasmussen has recently shown that Santorum can beat Obama more readily than Mr. Gingrich, there is a perception that Sen. Santorum is not presidential material.
Mr. Santorum has been accused of being a “big government” conservative, but so has Gov. Romney and that has not hurt Mr. Romney’s front-runner status. Sen. Santorum’s biggest weakness is more than likely the perception among GOP voters that he is thought of as more of a lieutenant than a general. Former Vice President Dan Quayle had a similar perception issue with voters.
Unfortunately for Mr. Santorum, he is the guy many believe is given orders by some silver haired veteran and later carries them out competently. With this in mind, it does not help that he served in the lower chamber under a “grandiose” thinking, scene stealing former speaker that he is currently running against for the White House, Newt Gingrich.
At the same time, though, like an office manager who has not been promoted in many years while watching others who come in after him and get promoted above him, Santorum can come off angry and frustrated at his circumstances. Voters saw this side of him during and after the debates.
Finally, a thorn remaining in Santorum’s side that may never be removed, but will have to be dealt with at some point is Senator Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican. A number of conservatives have not forgiven Santorum over not supporting then Rep. Toomey and instead supporting former Senator Arlen Specter (when he was still a Republican) for Mr. Specter’s senate seat in 2004. Sen. Santorum has said he made this decision as a result of a commitment from Specter, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that Bush judicial nominees would get his support.
While this decision hurt Santorum two years later when he ran for re-election in 2006 and lost, Santorum told me that he helped raise money for Toomey’s second and successful run for the senate. However, will that be enough for Senator Toomey to announce an endorsement or at least an “all is forgiven” statement to Santorum? Santorum first needs to show that he is a leader before he can expect such an occurrence to happen.
