Ames, Iowa (CNN) – Rick Santorum is one happy guy.
The GOP presidential candidate and former senator from Pennsylvania came in fourth at the Republican straw poll in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, behind Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and finishing just over 600 votes behind former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
“We were in range of three. I mean I felt like here’s a guy who spent a million bucks in this and we spent a fraction of that and here we are within a few hundred votes of him and I feel very, very good about that. I feel we’re positioned exactly were we want to be,” Santorum told CNN. “If you look at the top four, three of them can win the caucus. And I really feel that Ron Paul can’t win this caucus and can’t win this nomination and the other three candidates have a potential to do so. The top three tickets get punched out of Iowa, so I feel really good about that.”
OnFriday, Santorum told CNN’s Candy Crowley that if he finished lower than fifth place, he would have to consider ending his bid for the White House. But he says his fourth-place finish could give him more attention by the media.
“Hopefully the media will start paying more attention to us because they sure haven’t been doing much. At future debates hopefully I’m not going to be put on the far end of the debate and be forgotten about the first hour. Maybe this will help.”
Santorum says his campaign “had something to prove here, that we had a base that were building and that we were a campaign that should be paid attention to.”
As for what’s next, he says he’s going to continue to “be the little engine that could campaign no matter what happens. We’re just going to keep plugging away.”
CNN
by Paul Steinhauser
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/13/santorum-we-had-something-to-prove-here/
