The Circus Comes to Town

Josh Green reports from the Faith & Freedom Coalition's presidential forum in Waukee, Iowa.  5 candidates showed up, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Buddy Roemer, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum.  This surprises me:

For my money, Rick Santorum won the evening in a rout, which surprised me. The trick at these sorts of events is to pander to the audience, but not in a way that's flagrant and embarrassing, like Mitt Romney does. Santorum seemed relaxed, genuine, and sunny, even when talking about unpleasant issues like partial-birth abortion. He noted almost offhandedly that he had been "attached at the hip" with groups like the event sponsor during his time in the Senate, which is true. Then he spoke about the many battles that he lost in the Senate, often ones that involved abortion and marriage, the kind of fights that were hopeless from a numbers standpoint, but that were nonetheless worth waging. As a senator, this had made his life difficult. "My kids used to think my first name was 'ultra,'" he said, in reference to the media's (not-unjustified) habit of referring to him as "the ultra-conservative Rick Santorum." Santorum used this as a badge of honor, which was both clever and effective. Where I was sitting the crowd was hushed and rapt.

Afterward, I sought out Santorum and asked about the status of his prospective presidential bid. He'd just fended off a series of charged and provocative questions from fringe conservative-journalist types trying to get him to say outlandish things about Muslims. He looked tired. I got the pat answer about how he's going to "keep putting one foot in front of the other, see how things go, and see how fundraising goes--that's a big issue." I gathered it wasn't going especially well. Santorum hadn't taken a shot at Newt on stage, but couldn't resist now. "I think Newt's found one way to do it," he said, with a hint of a grin. "We're going to do it a different way." Then he winced. "I forgot to hawk my website." He looked disappointed. Even so, he helped himself tonight.

I just can't imagine Santorum as a viable candidate.