Rise of Rick Santorum

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have been consistently the most conservative of the field. The voters, gullible enough to believe the attacks by the main extreme media, have determined that Michele Bachmann is unelectable. The bookend campaign by Santorum had many believing he is unelectable as well. However, as the various flaws of the candidates are exposed, the search for a conservative has found it way to the last flavor of the month left.

In Iowa, Santorum has seen some improvement in his poll numbers. With the relentless attacks against Newt Gingrich turning many voters off, Romney being too moderate for most, and Ron Paul being too crazy, the departure of Herman Cain has sent Evangelicals and other conservatives over to consider the former Senator from Pennsylvania.

To explain his late surge, Santorum has indicated that it's like any small business. "If the money's not coming in, you've just got to work harder and that's what we're doing. We're going up in the morning doing radio shows at six in the morning and going until nine, ten at night and town meeting after town meeting. 357 in Iowa. Hard work pays off."

We must remember that Iowa is important in the sense that it kicks off the primary season, but winning Iowa doesn't necessarily guarantee a successful run. In 2008 Huckabee was the winner in Iowa.

There are some that claim Santorum is not as conservative as he seems. Some call him a RINO because as a U.S. Senator he voted "yes" on the PATRIOT Act, and many see the PATRIOT Act as unconstitutional, and a grievous overreach by the federal government into the realm of our individual rights. Some consider the bill's single largest infringement on our rights being the allowance of wiretaps within the United States without a search warrant on international phone calls that originate from The States. As I will make clear in my next article, the PATRIOT Act is not the encroachment on our rights that some may think.

If anything, his vote for the PATRIOT Act makes me like Santorum more, for it proved he could make the tough decisions when it comes to defending this nation against Islamic Terrorism.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Santorum on CNN Poll: Hard Work Pays Off - CNN

Rick Santorum RINO - RINOs and RATS (as I will demonstrate in my next article, this site is wrong about the PATRIOT Act. They are wrong about their Bank Deregulation argument, too, but that is for a different day to discuss).