Rick Santorum had a layover last night in the Dallas-Fort Worth
airport, having taken the cheapest flight available from Iowa to
Washington, D.C. “That’s the kind of campaign we’re running,” said
the former Pennsylvania senator, who will fly back to Iowa
tomorrow. He was scheduled to speak this morning at a forum hosted
by the Republican Jewish Coalition, an event being held at the
Ronald Reagan Building, the address of which is 1300 Pennsylvania
Avenue. Santorum knows that his hope of making it to the White
House three blocks away depends almost entirely on the voters of
the Hawkeye State. Santorum will be campaigning practically
non-stop in Iowa in the four weeks leading up to the Jan. 3
precinct caucuses. But of course, he’s been campaigning there
nearly non-stop all year.
Santorum is the only candidate in the GOP 2012 field who
has visited all 99 counties in Iowa, where he has already held more
than 250 events this year, and yesterday ended a three-day swing
through the western part of the state that was his most successful
tour so far. Last week he was
endorsed by one of Iowa’s most influential evangelical leaders,
Pastor Cary Gordon of Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, who
predicted at a
Monday event with Santorum: “This man is just
about to blow the doors off the caucus.”
That bold prophecy of a political miracle — at a time
when
polls show Santorum currently near the back of the Republican
pack — is not merely a matter of faith, because Gordon is the kind
of man who can make a major difference in a state where Christian
conservatives are a key factor in GOP politics. Gordon led a
successful effort last year to defeat the re-election of three
state supreme court justices who “voted to impose same-sex marriage
on the people of Iowa,” as Santorum said in our brief telephone
interview last night.
Gordon “stood tall and stood firm and gained a lot of
respect in the pro-family community for what he did,” Santorum
said, pointing out that the Sioux City minister recorded a 19-minute online video making the
case for his candidate of choice. “Lay your fears aside. Put the
polling data aside… and vote principles,” Gordon declared in the
video. Because of his record of standing up for Christian values,
the evangelical leader’s endorsement sent “a very strong signal to
pastors that we were the right choice among the conservatives who
are vying for the nomination in Iowa,” Santorum said, describing
Gordon as “someone who’s going to be actively engaged and involved
in helping recruit more people to the team.”
People of faith sometimes see signs and omens where
secular minds see mere coincidence, which could spark a spirited
debate over the significance of an interesting fact: On the same
day the Santorum campaign announced Gordon’s endorsement, former
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
spontaneously offered praise for Santorum on national
television. In a Thursday appearance on Sean Hannity’s popular Fox
News program, Palin was asked if she thought the fight for the
Republican nomination had come down to a contest between former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romney. “No, not yet,” answered Palin, the GOP’s 2008
vice-presidential candidate, explaining that if voters decide “they
want ideological consistency, then they’re going to start paying
attention to, say, Rick Santorum, who has been consistent on being
a hard-liner against Iran, to help protect Israel. He’s been
consistent on wanting to protect the most vulnerable and the
sanctity of life.”
Some might dismiss that unsolicited praise from Palin, who
remains popular with conservative Tea Party activists, as an
entirely random remark. For Santorum, however, her words may have
been answered prayer, providing the underdog candidate with the
kind of fundraising boost his low-budget campaign needs in the
final weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
“Our small dollar donations have just dramatically
increased, which is, you know, a great sign for us… and I think
Sarah Palin’s comments were absolutely critical to that,” Santorum
said, adding that there has also been a noticeable “spike” in
traffic to his campaign
website. His supporters have wondered if last week’s surprising
praise from Palin will prove the prelude to an outright
endorsement. Her pattern in previous elections has been to maximize
her impact by endorsing candidates at pivotal moments, unleashing
an overwhelming flood of contributions and publicity to the chosen
campaign.
Santorum wasn’t waiting on miracles during his layover in
the Dallas airport last night, however, but was focused on doing
the hard work of campaigning he’s been doing all year. He doesn’t
expect a sudden surge in the polls, Santorum said, but plans to
“scratch and claw and continue to build that grassroots support” he
sees as vital to victory in Iowa. “As people look at the candidates
and see who’s the strongest, most conservative candidate who can
take on Obama… someone who’s been solid, someone that you can
trust, I feel like good common-sense Iowans are going to say, ‘You
know, Santorum is the guy.’ And like I said, I think we’re going to
surprise folks.”
The call came for final boarding on his flight to D.C. for
today’s event on Pennsylvania Avenue. Santorum will fly back
Thursday to Iowa, where voters will decide whether or not it’s a
one-way trip.
