MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Political ads are now running almost
constantly during the commercial breaks on TV here, and most of
them are attack ads. Mitt Romney’s “super PAC” Restore Our Future
is attacking Newt Gingrich and Gingrich’s “super PAC” Winning Our
Future is attacking Romney. And, as if to validate his newfound
status as a contender for the Republican presidential nomination,
Rick Santorum is now being attacked in TV ads, one by Ron Paul’s
campaign and another by Romney’s “super PAC.”
Asked about one of those ads during a town-hall event in
Florence on Sunday, Santorum struggled to find words for the
pro-Romney PAC’s ad, which accuses him of wanting to extend voting
rights to felons. “That is a lie,” the former Pennsylvania senator
said at Percy & Willie’s restaurant. “To go and mislead the
people of South Carolina as to what our record is on this is just…
yuck. I expect that from Barack Obama. I don’t expect it from a
Republican running for president.”
Santorum’s own ads are relentlessly positive. One of his ads running here
features images of Santorum with his wife and seven children and
calls him “a trusted conservative who gives us the best chance to
take back America.” Even the ads from the pro-Santorum “super
PAC” (the Red, White & Blue Fund) are positive, portraying
him as “a principled conservative” who is “determined and will
never waiver.” That ad features footage of Santorum’s speech on the
night of the Iowa caucuses, in which he said, “What wins in America
are bold ideas, sharp contrasts, and a plan that includes everyone…
a plan that says we will work together to get America to
work.”
Santorum is not afraid to draw “sharp contrasts” with
Obama. During his speech Sunday morning at the Faith & Freedom
Coalition’s prayer breakfast here, he spoke of America’s
transformational influence in the world: “We’re the wealthiest
country in the world and the world is wealthier because they have
become more like us. We’ve transformed humankind. And we have a
president who sees all of that as a mistake.” In a speech that
highlighted themes of faith and American exceptionalism, Santorum
told the audience of more than 350 at the Sheraton Convention
Center, “People ask, ‘How are you going to unite us together?’
Remind every American who we are. This president reminds us of what
divides us, not what unites us.”
His ambition of uniting Americans, however, is dependent
upon Santorum’s ability to unite conservatives behind his campaign.
That ambition got a boost over the weekend when a
group of evangelical leaders meeting in Texas voted to endorse
him. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said it was a
“strong consensus” in Santorum’s favor and, while some wondered
whether the endorsement might be too late in the campaign to help,
Perkins said it “could be exactly the right time,” given the
influence of social conservatives in South Carolina.
That influence was apparent during the Sunday afternoon
town-hall event in Florence, where the crowd inside the restaurant
applauded when Santorum said, “America is a moral enterprise, not
an economic enterprise.” And they applauded again when Santorum
took aim at Obama, saying the way the president is “constantly
pitting one group against another” is “disgusting.”
Most polls
currently show Santorum in third place in South Carolina, but
his campaign believes they will finish strong here, as they did
with their phenomenal last-minute surge in Iowa. “We are on fire,”
former congressman Gresham Barrett, Santorum’s state campaign
chairman, said while introducing the candidate in Florence.
Santorum will have two chances to add fuel to that fire this week,
with televised debates tonight in Myrtle Beach (9 p.m., Fox News)
and Thursday in Charleston (8 p.m., CNN). And the debate stage will
be slightly less crowded, because former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman
will reportedly drop out of the presidential race today and endorse
Romney.
Many pundits saw that development as further evidence of
Romney’s “inevitability,” but Santorum clearly believes that South
Carolinians are willing to ignore the pundits who have discounted
his chances of scoring an upset victory here. “Vote your
conscience. Vote your values,” he told the people crowded inside
the restaurant in Florence. “Stand up and fight for what you know
is right.”
