With his fourth-place finish in the Iowa straw poll last Saturday, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's hard work there is paying off.
Whether he can turn his 9.8 percent vote total into a strong finish or a win in the Iowa Republican caucuses early next year and propel himself to greater glory is another story, but remember this:
People mostly wrote him off and he's surprising everyone again - just as when he first ran for U.S. House in 1990 and the Senate in 1994.
In politics, surprise is the great momentum builder.
"I don't think anyone thought he was going to be as high up," said ABC political analyst Amy Walter in a broadcast report.
By Tuesday, Mr. Santorum was all over television, blasting newbie candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry for intemperately saying it would be "almost treasonous" for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to use monetary policy to play politics in the presidential election.
Yeah, Rick Santorum was telling someone else to cool it with the rhetoric.
Former President Bush's political guru, Karl Rove, told Perry to pipe down, too, and Mr. Perry did without backing off what he said, but Mr. Santorum earned his share of TV face time.
He actually complained about TV face time during a presidential debate two days before the poll. Halfway through, he joked about getting only one question to that point.
"And I told you when I traveled around Iowa, you would see me in your city, in your hometown, but you probably wouldn't see much of me on television. So it's totally true tonight," he said, according to a Los Angeles Times debate transcript.
The audience laughed, but Mr. Santorum got a lot more questions after that.
It wasn't like when Ronald Reagan said, "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green (sic)" when debate moderator John Breen turned off his microphone in a 1980 New Hampshire debate, but Mr. Santorum proved good things happen when you speak up.
By the day of the poll, Mr. Santorum had visited "68 of Iowa's 99 counties, holding 111 town hall meetings and rallies in libraries, coffee shops, and even living rooms," according to a post-poll statement.
"Unlike President Obama, who wants the American people to believe in government, Rick Santorum believes in the American people, which is exactly why he took his message straight to the people and they overwhelmingly responded," the statement said.
Though they could not vote in the poll, longtime local Republican activist Rose Ann Gaetano, 63, of Dunmore, and former Susquehanna County Republican chairwoman Donna Cosmello, 56, of New Milford Twp., rented a car and drove to Ames, which is in the middle of Iowa, to help Mr. Santorum.
They love Rick.
"Everybody thinks he can't win," Ms. Gaetano said.
She's sure he can become the Republican presidential nominee.
"Because I know Rick," she said. "Because when you meet him one-on-one, you like him. He doesn't flip, he doesn't flop. Sometimes, you might not like what he has to say, but you know it's the truth."
Well, in politics, truth is often in the eye of the beholder, but you know what she means.
"I respect the man, I respect his family, I just really had to do this," Ms. Cosmello said. "I think Rick will walk the walk, talk the talk."
So off they went, leaving at 4 a.m. Tuesday and arriving at 9:45 that night.
They went to the debate Thursday and helped as "bus leaders," handing out tickets to enter the poll grounds as supporters arrived by bus from Sioux City and other places.
On Saturday, Mr. Santorum walked through the crowd seeking votes.
"He was a people person," Ms. Cosmello said. "He doesn't forget anybody. ... Michele Bachmann was going back and forth in a golf cart. Not Rick; he walked the crowd."
In the end, Mrs. Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, won with more than three times as many votes, so maybe golf carts aren't such a bad idea. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was a close second, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty third.
Mr. Pawlenty pulled out Sunday, which means only two candidates still in the race finished ahead of Mr. Santorum. He actually beat former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has done little in Iowa this year after winning the straw poll in 2007, and Mr. Perry, who only declared his candidacy on poll day.
So Mr. Santorum, who really needed to surprise to remain viable, keeps plodding along with "the little-engine-that-could campaign" as he calls it.
If he keeps this up, next year's presidential race could feature the candidate who keeps saying "I think I can" facing the candidate who once said, "Yes we can."
thetimes-tribune.com
by Roderick Random
http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/editorials-columns/roderick-random/straw-poll-shows-santorum-no-straw-man-1.1190990#ixzz1Vb7q6mOU
