IN SIMPLE TERMS

By BOBBIE McAULIFFE
Unless you are a current events and political junkie like me you probably never heard of him until Wednesday morning Jan. 4, 2012. 

Rick Santorum represented a conservative district in Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1990 through 1994, then was elected to the U.S. Senate and re-elected in 2000. He lost his seat to Bob Casey in 2006 when Democrats swept Capitol Hill. Bob Casey will face his first re-election this year.

Santorum is one of six remaining Republican candidates for the GOP nomination for President of the United States. He did not get many TV interviews, and was hardly recognized in the debates. His poll numbers were near the bottom, even in Iowa where he had been spending most of his time. 

Those same polls, however, showed as many as 60 percent of Iowa caucus goers were undecided until the weekend before the caucus and Rick’s numbers started rising as they began making up their mind.

Caucus night he led for most of the evening until the last precinct reported in and pushed Mitt Romney just eight votes ahead of Santorum.

In his post-caucus speech, Senator Santorum said his campaign had received more money in the last few days than in the previous several weeks. He was also the only candidate to recognize Our Creator.

Thursday morning his campaign manager reported they had received over a million dollars in small contributions in the 24 hours following the surprising second-place win in Iowa.

The first in the nation primary, New Hampshire, will be Tuesday. Polls show the Senator has moved from last place with only four percent to third place with 13 percent and gaining, though Mitt Romney is expected to win New Hampshire easily. He has been campaigning there for six years.

In a recent debate Santorum was asked why he is running against Romney now when he endorsed him in 2008. Without hesitating, Santorum answered “In 2008 he was running against John McCain.” You should remember that John McCain was an author of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

The cornerstone of the Santorum campaign is family values. He is 100 percent pro life, opposes same sex marriage and believes our immigration laws on the books now must be enforced; no amnesty.

He is as knowledgeable as Newt Gingrich on foreign affairs; no one else on the stage comes close to either of them on that issue. He has an economic plan to bring manufacturing back to the United States and has promised to rescind all of President Obama’s executive orders that interfere with business and recovering our own natural resources.

He is a lifelong Catholic, married to the same woman for more than 20 years, has seven children; one of them with special needs and is my pick of the litter to be the GOP nominee.