In a span of just two and a half minutes in Iowa Saturday, Rick Santorum revealed both his greatest strength and most severe weakness as a prospective 2016 presidential candidate.
Speaking at The Family Leader summit, the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 presidential caucus victor rekindled his flinty, blue-collar message that’s been noticeably absent in the Republican Party while also referencing how his ideological fealty to cultural issues damaged him with the donors who control the purse strings.
All in a two-and-a-half minute sliver of his 20-minute address. (Audio courtesy of Radio Iowa)
First, Santorum’s strength:
“We need to be able to communicate to the folks who hold the jobs and tell them and put a platform together that focuses on them. Because you know what, not everybody in America is a type-A personality that works 80 hours a week to wanna build a business and that money is everything to them. Lot of folks want to spend time with their family, work in their community groups, spend time at their church, and we as Republicans believe that’s a good thing. But we don’t talk about it and we don’t talk to them.”
In addition to being a veiled swipe at Mitt Romney’s 1 percent-branded campaign, Santorum is speaking to the grassroots — ostensibly the heart of the party — and recognizing that the Republican coalition is much wider than the Koch brother-cocktail hour wing. This message resonates with lower-income Iowans — and Americans — who will never see a corporate boardroom, a college graduation ceremony or possibly even venture into a different time zone. It’s a nod that they exist and matter — and that he can carry their voice. It’s a signal that he understands that for some, the big American dream, is just a simple, quiet small town life.
Immediately following that riff, Santorum ventured into his weakness:
“They say we need to talk less about the culture, because we’re losing. It’s a losing issue for us and therefore we need to talk less . . . I’ll give you an example, when I was running for president, early on . .. I went to a breakfast in New York, some of the wealthiest backers of candidates in New York. And I sat down at this breakfast and they grilled me for a half hour on my moral and cultural positions. I finally stopped and said, ‘You’ve had other candidates up here, I know you have. Did you ask them the same questions?’ They said no. I said, ‘Well, why not, because they have the same position on these issues — at least they say they do — as I do.’ And they looked at me and said, ‘You’re different.’ I said, ‘Why am I different?’ They said, ‘Because you mean it.’
In Santorum’s mind, this anecdote was relayed to show that he’s the genuine article. That while the likes of Mitt and McCain say they are “pro-life” and against gays marrying — it’s more of a wink and nod routine to placate the “crazies.” Rick, on the other hand, is the true believer of the era. And the moneymen in New York were smart enough to spot it. But Santorum’s rigid cultural stands — while admirable from a point of earnest principal — will remain a burden for a Santorum 2.0 endeavor.
He was never going to be the big money candidate — but its money — at least, partially — that halted his march on Mitt last time. (If he only had a more dollars to buy ads in eastern Ohio!) With the new fresh faces of Marco, Rand,Christie and Walker marching onto the field, it’s hard to imagine how Santorum assembles the cash he’ll need for an even higher-octane fight.
The small-dollar, grassroot approach shouldn’t be dismissed. But even if he can grind out another sterling Iowa showing with a gritty ground game, the money will catch up to him. And there may too many other “electables” to dole out too, especially since Rick won’t stop yammering about the “culture” that the cocktail club Republicans would rather downplay, if not altogether ignore.
Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com
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