Santorum’s surge poses a test
Sometimes it’s best to be last. By catching the eye of Iowa voters at the last possible moment — after they’d jilted every other suitor running as the more conservative alternative to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — Rick Santorum left no time for second thoughts. The Romney attack machine that so effectively pummeled former House speaker Newt Gingrich never had a moment to train its guns on the late upstart.
But with Santorum’s profile raised by his virtual tie with Romney, he is sure to face a double-edged test.
Romney, and potentially others, will likely focus on the few instances in which Santorum deviated from conservative orthodoxy during his 16 years in the House and Senate. These include his use of earmarks, support for increasing the minimum wage, and other matters that will be seen as transgressions by voters in upcoming Republican primaries. But Santorum’s conservative credentials are sterling. His bigger problem may be showing that he can appeal to voters other than committed social conservatives.
The last time Santorum ran for office in a general election was his 2006 bid to retain his Senate seat, a race he lost in a landslide because he represented a Northeastern center-left state as if it were a deeply conservative Southern state. He was most famous for arguing that if courts recognized a right to consensual homosexual sex they would also have to sanction incest, polygamy and other long-prohibited forms of sex. That struck many urban and suburban voters as both extreme and factually incorrect.
He’s rigidly opposed to abortion, even favoring prosecution of doctors. He’s endorsed switching Medicare to a voucher system, which may scare older voters. He’s enthusiastic about attacking Iran to prevent its acquisition of nuclear weapons, a potentially tough sell when the nation is weary of war. And he’ll also need to prove his mettle on the year’s top issue, the economy, which has not been his focus.
Santorum’s rise poses a test of how willing the nation is to shift dramatically to the right — one that will now be in the spotlight, beginning with the next Republican debate Saturday night.