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Campaign Crawlers
Santorum’s Family Fight
After surprising success, the campaign trail leads him home.
Just off Highway 17 in the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, we found the shopping center where the state campaign headquarters was located. It was Tuesday, Jan. 17, and my 13-year-old son Jefferson was along for the ride on my road trip to cover the South Carolina primary. The day before in Myrtle Beach, Jefferson had helped me cover the press conference where former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announced he was ending his presidential bid and endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Then, that Monday night, we’d covered the Fox News debate that was generally acknowledged as a solid win for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
We hadn’t come to the Palmetto State to cover Gingrich, Romney or Huntsman, however, and so on that Tuesday afternoon, driving from Myrtle Beach to Charleston, we pulled off Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant to visit Rick Santorum’s South Carolina headquarters. Wheeling into the parking lot, I spotted two familiar-looking young men walking out of the office, carrying large boxes. Rolling down my window, I asked, “Where y’all heading?”
“Mail drop,” said John Santorum, eldest son of the candidate, as he and his younger brother Daniel loaded the boxes into an SUV and drove off to the local post office.
Lots of Republicans talk about “family values,” but the Santorum campaign could never have made it as far as it did without the valuable work done by the candidate’s wife, Karen, and their children. During the long months when the former Pennsylvania senator struggled to raise money and media attention, Santorum’s wife and kids were among the campaign’s hardest-working volunteers. They made phone calls and stuffed envelopes and did the work that other campaigns paid staffers to do. The first time I covered Santorum’s campaign — at a barn party in Roland, Iowa, a week before the Ames Straw Poll — his daughters were serving ice cream to the few dozen supporters in attendance. On that first Saturday in August, Santorum was below 4 percent in the Real Clear Politics average of Iowa polls, and his national poll numbers were so low, he barely qualified to participate in the early debates.
Among the candidates leading Santorum in the polls at the time, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was destined to quit eight days later, after a disappointing third-place finish at Ames. The winner of the Aug. 13 straw poll, Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, ended her campaign on Jan. 4, the day after she placed sixth in the Iowa caucuses. Atlanta businessman Herman Cain, who placed fifth in the Ames Straw Poll, eventually called it quits in early December, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — whose official entry into the 2012 Republican field on Aug. 13 made him a front-runner overnight — raised and spent more than $19 million in a campaign that earned him fifth place in the Iowa caucuses and sixth in the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary before calling it quits two days before the Jan. 21 primary in South Carolina. Santorum’s campaign raised just $2.2 million in all of 2011; by the time he emerged as one of the final four candidates for the GOP nomination, he had outlasted five candidates — Pawlenty, Cain, Bachmann, Huntsman, and Perry — all of whom once led him in the polls, and whose campaigns spent a combined total of more than $55 million.
Santorum’s low-budget campaign accomplished miracles, beating Romney in 11 states, and topping Gingrich in all but two states, South Carolina and Georgia. Yet by the time the campaign trail brought Santorum home to Pennsylvania, Romney’s overwhelming delegate advantage left Santorum little hope that he could win the nomination. The Romney operation had already launched another one of its multimillion-dollar attack-ad blitzes in Pennsylvania and the experts — who had never expected Santorum to make it this far — were finally right in predicting that he could go no further. Faced with the prospect of almost certain defeat in his home-state primary on April 24, Santorum went to Gettysburg and gave one of the best speeches of his entire campaign, praising the youngest member of his family, 3-year-old daughter Bella.
“She is a fighter,” Santorum said of the little girl, born with a rare and usually fatal genetic disorder, who had just been released from the hospital for the second time this year. As his wife stood behind him, struggling to hold back tears, Santorum continued: “This was a time for prayer and thought for us over this past weekend and just like it was, frankly, when we decided to get into this race. Karen and I and the kids sat at the kitchen table and talked about our hopes and fears and our concerns. We were very concerned about being the best parents we could possibly be to our children, and making sure they had a country where the American dream was still possible.… We started out, almost a year ago now, in Somerset, in Pennsylvania, and I told my story, our story, of our family — my grandfather who came to this country and worked in the coal mines, my father who served our country in World War II.”
Santorum continued, telling the story of the “Chuck Truck” — a Dodge pickup driven by Chuck Laudner, an Iowa Republican who crisscrossed the Hawkeye State with a candidate none of the experts gave a chance. “Over and over again, we were told, ‘Forget it, you can’t win,’” Santorum recalled in his final campaign speech. “We were winning. We were winning in a very different way. We were touching hearts. We were raising issues that, well, frankly, a lot of people didn’t want to have raised.”
Ah, yes, the “social issues” — none of the experts wanted to hear about abortion and marriage and other things that Santorum talked about. Just eight years ago, when President Bush was re-elected, the pundits proclaimed that “values voters” had been the key to Republican success. But 2012, the pundits said, the Republican campaign would be all about the economy, with as little attention as possible to the kind of issues that made Santorum such an unexpectedly successful contender.
His teenage sons were still doing mail-drop duty that January day my son and I arrived at Santorum’s South Carolina headquarters. At that point, everyone still believed that Romney had squeaked to a narrow victory in Iowa. It wasn’t until two days before the South Carolina primary that a recount showed Santorum had won the Hawkeye State, but that news made little impact at a time when the campaign seemed to have become a two-man race between Romney and Gingrich. Santorum and his family kept fighting. After Newt stumbled in Florida and Nevada, Santorum scored surprising victories Feb. 7 in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, won Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakota on March 6, Kansas on March 10, Missouri and Alabama on March 13, and Louisiana on March 24.
Now, back home in Pennsylvania, his improbable success having carried him farther than anyone imagined during those months when he was riding around Iowa in the “Chuck Truck,” Santorum reached the end of the campaign trail.
“We made a decision over the weekend that… this presidential race for us is over, for me,” he said Tuesday. With his family standing behind him, Santorum made a final vow. “We are not done fighting.”
About the Author
Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.
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Appleby| 4.11.12 @ 7:35AM
Well, carry me back to Carter/Ford -- two candidates presented for my approval, neither of them of the slightest interest to me, and Mama still blames me for Carter's victory because I refused to be responsible for the election of either man. I'm afraid this is going to be another of those years. After spending 3 years as a Mormon, I cannot in good conscience vote for a Mormon man for President; Mitt Romney does not in any way hold a world view that comports with mine; he is not One of Us; he is 100% clueless about the everyday American, especially those of us who are quietly and desperately sinking as we struggle every day to keep our heads above the gathering wave. Romney in his palace will tell us to cheer up and just take a first class jet to Monaco and leave the worrying to our financial advisers, or jump in our fourth Cadillac and head for Holt Renfrew for a couple thousand dollars worth of handbags and some $2,000 running shoes.
The only thing this election says to me is that in this Easter season, the End Times are appreciably nearer than they were at Christmas.
Farewell, campaign; you will have to get along without me.
Frekki| 4.11.12 @ 8:42AM
Does that mean no more early morning monologues like this one? Here's hoping.
DTOM!| 4.11.12 @ 8:59AM
Romney is our Joe Biden.
But given the choice between Mittens Romney and Barack Husein Obama, I will crawl over broken glass and barbed wire, I will swim through a pool of molten steel, I will brave anything to get to the polls on that first Tuesday in November and vote for Romney.
Anyone who does not is complicit with the complete destruction of our country.
Voting for Romney will not be as aggravating, irritating, insulting, or frustrating as voting for Jerry Ford, anyone named Bush, Bob Dole, or John McCain was. Barack Hussein Obama makes it so.
Republican party? Fie on your house! Tea Party? Time to get serious!
Do NOT Tread On Me!
John McG| 4.11.12 @ 10:24AM
Couldn't agree more. The conservative millenarians who hope (there's that word again) for a savior in 2016 are blind to the carnage Obama will wreak in a second term. There won't be much America left to salvage after his second term. (Second term? Heck, just watch him snub the Supreme Court this summer...)
So yes, I'll vote for the tepid, timid Romney. He's weak, he's vacillating, he's has every limitation catalogued in these pages. But he's not a Marxist. It's been pointed out a thousand times, but I'll repeat it too: not voting is a vote for Obama. If you chose not to vote, sleep well. If you can.
Vern Crisler | 4.11.12 @ 4:24PM
Spoken like an abused housewife: where-else-are-you-going-to-go?
Tina B| 4.11.12 @ 8:46AM
Oh Appleby, I so concur. I drove 100 miles to Sarasota to see Rick, and was met by the news of Baby Bella's condition requiring her daddy's presence. I was ok with his decision then and I am ok with their decision now. God will take care of the Santorums because their faith is in Him.
And America, which is mentioned nowhere in prophecy in Scripture? God will "take care" of her too. One person at a time. I believe in a pre-tribulation Rapture and I think that I will live to see it and I am 62. My hope is built on nothing less.
We, you and I, Appleby, will meet in person then, and not just on the pages of TAS, along with many others I have "met" here as we proclaim Christ to anyone who will pay attention. We know that we are safe.
America, you can hasten the day all you want by voting for Obama or Romney. Either one will talk of their faith but it is not in the One and Only God of all Creation, His Son Christ Jesus, and His Holy Spirit. Both of these men will advance a program already written about and defined and limited by the Almighty. They only think they're running things. If their name is not written in The Book of Life, they and their followers are doomed.
Christ the Spirit brother of Lucifer??? Have Conservatives chosen this Mormon, or has someone else? Somethink for his followers to ponder.
Love ya, Appleby, even before I meet you, here, there or in the air!
Skippy| 4.11.12 @ 3:26PM
"Absolutely right!"
BHO
David| 4.11.12 @ 7:21PM
TinaB, America is not mentioned by name, but I do believe that when the world comes against Israel, the Bible does say that Great Britain and HER YOUNG LIONS will stand with Israel.
I take "young lions" to mean America, Australia, and other countries who were part of the British Empire.
Just my thought on the matter.
Bye Bye| 4.12.12 @ 2:39AM
So go away with Appleby and cry in your beer.
The rest of us have work to do.
Mike| 4.11.12 @ 8:51AM
A religious bigot, cannot vote for a Mormon. But you can allow a Muslim socialist to win.
You are a pompous whiner.
Tina B| 4.11.12 @ 10:39AM
No, I will cast my vote for Mittens, and never "allow" BHO to win. Pompous? Never. Honest, yes. Whiner? who's whining? I can't wait for the return of Jesus, and I can stand firm until then. And voting against BHO is standing firm against evil. But I can relate to Appleby's feelings regarding Santorum's choice for family over political fight.
Mike| 4.11.12 @ 1:34PM
Tina,
My comment was directed to the Canadian Whiner, Appleby, not you.
I have no respect for anyone who votes for Obama either directly or indirectly.
Vern Crisler | 4.11.12 @ 4:25PM
Then you don't respect yourself.
fmm| 4.11.12 @ 12:35PM
Your momma is right. Giving up and not taking a stand just increases your desperate sink rate.
Bye Bye| 4.12.12 @ 2:37AM
So go away & quit griping. We don't need you.
The Bruce| 4.12.12 @ 4:39AM
"The only thing this election says to me is that in this Easter season, the End Times are appreciably nearer than they were at Christmas."
So go ahead and pull the lever for Romney, Appleby. Yeah, I think he sucks too, but his suck-factor is substantially less than Obama's.
Our children deserve at least one more happy Christmas before the country pulls it's bottom lip collectively over its head and swallows.
At least try to give our children another year. Please? Don't be the astronomical equivalent to a Black Hole consuming itself.
Set aside your animosity for Romney for a moment: would you prefer another four years of Obama???
Peggy | 4.11.12 @ 8:10AM
I had the pleasure of meeting you in my home town of Fond du Lac “we are not done fighting” for our country…and will defeat Barack Obama in Nov
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.11.12 @ 8:53AM
The only thing Santorum proved was that the public won't buy conservatism from someone who never put it into practice.
Mike Hawk| 4.11.12 @ 9:38AM
Screw you BHO (is that for Barak Hussein Obummer in reality). I voted for Rick twice for Senator. He is an honorable, ethical man of family and faith. He is no Liberal though the Paulistinians and the liberal RINOs would like to say that (pretending to be conservatives of which neither are). If he was so damn Liberal then why did the RINO Establishment have so much trouble backing him?? Why did Specter (who dislikes Santorum intensly) stab him in the back?? You are full of sh!t.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.11.12 @ 10:00AM
Give us some examples of how Santorum put conservatism into practice when he was in the U.S. Senate.
Don't attack the messenger. I'm just bringing you the facts.
Let's see your facts that he was a conservative in the Senate otherwise, you're a fool and perhaps an idiot.
Occam's Tool| 4.11.12 @ 1:02PM
Bill: he was instrumental in Welfare reform.
My prayers for Bella and the Santorum family.
Dai Alanye | 4.11.12 @ 2:31PM
Santorum was THE most consevative senator from a blue state, with high grades from all consevative rating organizations.
Stalin is, as usual, fact-free in his comments. But his attitude will have one effect -- it'll make it that much harder for true conservatives to back Romney.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.11.12 @ 3:10PM
Well, I asked for some examples and so far we hear how he was instrumental in welfare reform.
What you need to understand is that although Santorum did play a part, his legislation, which he helped craft, was vetoed.
The second part of the welfare reform issue you need to remember is that it was a Clinton campaign issue.
Clinton waited until 3 months before the election to pass it and on that conservative note, Clinton was re-elected.
In fact, Clinton passed some of the more conservative legislation since the 70's.
Although that's a weak example of something Santorum accomplished, since he never really accomplished anything on the issue (His bill was vetoed) can anyone give an example of something he actually accomplished?
Soljerblue| 4.12.12 @ 1:09AM
Yeah -- he helped show up Mitt Romney for the bilious, self-important moneybags RINO he really is. Rubbed his nose in it, in fact.
FeFe| 4.12.12 @ 5:05AM
Delicious.
Ted| 4.11.12 @ 1:43PM
For the sake of argument, let's say you are right about Santorum (although a careful look at his resume will prove the charge false).
How do you explain Mitt Romney? I don't want to return to Reagan-Bush when I was an independent? For Massachusetts gun control? For abortion? For gay "marriage"? For Romneycare?
Mitt Romney is not now, has never been, and will never be a true conservative. He has held no clearly discernable conservative principles over his political career.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.11.12 @ 3:44PM
Can you give one example of anything Conservative that Santorum has accomplished?
Mike W| 4.11.12 @ 9:49AM
Good riddance to sweater vest Santorum. Shame on him for using his kid as an excuse to get out of the race. He should admit that he was losing. I loathe the thought of him returning in 2012.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.11.12 @ 10:00AM
You're a realist. Prepare to be attacked with half witted comments.
Eric | 4.11.12 @ 10:29AM
Santorum knew his days were numbered. He had already lost his home states of Virginia and DC. To lose the state he used to represnt would have hurt. I sarcastically did this because apparently Mitt Romney had a bunch of home states(Michigan,where he hadn't lived since high school,and Massachussetts.
Rich D| 4.11.12 @ 12:19PM
Uh, Rich was from Pennsylvania...
Tina B| 4.11.12 @ 10:45AM
MW and BHO, it is your snide comments that are witless, to call you half-witted would be seriously inflating things. You two sound as elitist as the Obamster.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.11.12 @ 12:57PM
Yes, and your comment had so much imagination and lack of bitterness. What a joy you must be to be around.
Tina B| 4.11.12 @ 6:31PM
Everone I know thinks I'm fun. And you?
Dixie Pixie| 4.11.12 @ 12:14PM
WTF just happened?
The Conservatives were the most popular kids at the Dance.
Every one wanted to be us including Huntsman and Mittens.
We had far more intellectual depth and brilliance in the readership on American Spectator alone than the New York Times and Nation combined.
The Socialists are still stuck on FDR's ideas from the 1930's and are getting the same results FDR got.
Conservative Ideas, on the other hand, are forward looking and set in the 21st Century not the 18th Century ideas of the Socialists.
So what went wrong?
Let us admit that President Reagan was the most exceptional of American Exceptionalism.
Like “Bear” Bryant or Burt Rutan, we will never see his like again.
It is way past time to bury “Reaganism” and re-craft “Conservatism” for the political and economic conditions we are now in.
Second, Conservatism must get much better at internal organization than the Socialists.
We will never beat them at the Big Money Game as they have control of the public purse of Trillions.
So we must be a lot better at the fundamentals of organization than the Socialists.
Third, the Conservatives must learn to focus its efforts on the limited political situations where it can win.
Fighting every phantasm of the “KurturSmog” only dissipates our efforts.
Conservatism must learn to focus, Focus, FOCUS.
Fourth, We must never let anyone but Conservatism define what Conservatism means.
Conservatives must ruthlessly define, defend and enforce it its beliefs.
No longer can we afford to let anyone claim he is a Conservative unless he or she proves it by ACTIONS NOT WORDS.
The day when a person like Huntsman can claim to be Conservative must be over less Conservatism become a meaningless label.
Face the facts, we Conservatives lost again and it was our own fault.
We have to change our methodology or face political dissolution and obliteration.
RCV| 4.11.12 @ 12:23PM
Good self-analysis, right up until the last point. It was that purer-than-thou brand of conservatism that doomed the chances of conservatives coalescing around a single candidate that led to the triumph of Romney, and it will happen, again and again as long as the purists continue to insist on purity by their own definition.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.11.12 @ 1:04PM
RCV
I must agree with you here. Well spoken.
Nevertheless..."UP WITH ELMER FUDD FOR PRESIDENT!"
RCV| 4.11.12 @ 1:22PM
LOL
Vern Crisler | 4.11.12 @ 4:29PM
You think Newt was a pure conservative?
Dixie Pixie| 4.11.12 @ 6:50PM
Greetings RCV.
I have always thought it was MSM deviltry that was pushing the concept that it was Conservative “Purity” that was forcing people into the Democratic Party superstitions so as to “Win” elections.
I am under the impression it was the “Purity” of Conservative ideas that were pulling people into Conservatism.
After all, there is no “Socialist” Wing of the Republican Party.
It is the common sense and rationality of Conservatism that is our strength.
So why not push Conservative beliefs and yes, demand the candidates remain “Pure” to those beliefs.
After all it is the reason why all the candidates claimed to be Conservatives even when not.
The problem as I see it, is Conservatism has been redefined by so many people the term is rapidity becoming meaningless.
Saying Mittens Romney is a Conservative, and therefore one of us, is like saying Romney is a Mammal and therefore just like us.
So the question arises: “Just what sort of Mammal is Mittens Romney?”
Dude....Mittens is a North-Eastern Republican Party Elitist and Vulture Capitalist Financier of long standing.
Just saying he is Conservative does not make him so.
That being said, we are stuck with him as our candidate so let us make the best of the situation.
Suggestions or any other ideas anyone.
Cyndy| 4.11.12 @ 3:42PM
A great reflection piece on Rick Santorum and his family at work on the campaign. This is the way families are to be-united, caring. Thank you for all the pieces you have written on this campaign.
Mike Rogers | 4.11.12 @ 5:38PM
I felt like I was along for the ride, and in many ways, occasionally in person, and at other times through Stacy's writings, I was.
The Other McCain Cronicles have been a staple of the 2012 campaign, and even at this major denouement, I suspect that there will be plenty more from the well-used keyboard below the well-used Fedora.
Keep up the great work Stacy- we need the truth from the trail!
Tina B| 4.11.12 @ 6:33PM
Agreed, Cyndy and Mike. Stacy did Santorum proud. One of the few.
BackToBasics| 4.11.12 @ 6:42PM
Since Santorum is no longer campaigning, I think it would be legal for Romney to offer to pay all Santorum's campaign debts, I think it's about 4.5 million. If he were to do that, or even offer to poay half, I think a lot of the fence-sitters would go Romeny's way even if Santorum refused the gesture.
He'd be accused of buying the election or of being so rich he he can throw money away, but so what, he's going to be accused of so many false things anyway it wouldn't matter.
David| 4.11.12 @ 7:39PM
Hey BHO, you are a total flippin" moron. If conservative groups involved with ALL TYPES of issues give him high conservative ratings, then he IS a conservative. If tax groups, NRA, pro-life groups, and business groups all believe he is conservative, and if numerous conservative publications say he was one of the most conservative repubs in the Senate, then I suggest to your moronic mind that Santorum WAS and IS a conservative.
THose groups based their ratings on how he voted when in Congress for 16 years.
Since leaving Congress, consider the following:
Global warming - he didn't buy into it - Mitt and Newt have.
Amnesty for illegals - he didn't buy into it - Newt and Mitt have.
Individual mandate for health insurance - he never supported it - Newt has supported it for years and Mitt is the author of it.
Wall Street bailouts - he didn't buy into it - Mitt and Newt did.
What more do you and the other morons on this site need to show that Rick WAS and IS a conservative?
Drek| 4.12.12 @ 2:56AM
David,
where does Santorum's support for McCain/Feingold figure in on your calculations?
Santorum took an oath about the Constitution. Then he voted to ban ads 30 days out from elections.
It was appalling.
And Santorum isn't someone like GW Bush, who wasn't a lawyer and still should have known better. Santorum was a lawyer.
I could go on but what's the point really.
Santorum hadn't any executive experience, and four years hence, he's going to be up against some conservative Governors who will have spent the next four years enhancing their resume and record, while Santorum will be standing still.
He has no executive experience.
And in the GOP, that's important.
Drek| 4.12.12 @ 3:07AM
With ALL the weaknesses revealed in Santorum's candidacy over the last six months, why would we turn to him four years hence when there will be others to select from?
Even his most ardent supporters had to perceive the guy was easily lured to pronounce upon subjects that only politically injured him. The guy couldn't stay on message.
The sweater vest didn't go over well, and he never picked up on that. Acting like a nerd might have endeared him to guys like RSM and some others, but it's hardly a presidential election winning trait, now is it? And who here believes that Santorum's personality will have altered over the next four years so that we'll be sure he'll spare us the whole sweater vest thing?
Nor is this a variant of nit-picking, because upon such things elections turn.
Additional women voted for GW in 2000 because they liked seeing pictures of a young GW in his flight suit. They admitted as much.
Men were drawn to him as opposed to that nerd and stiff, Al Gore, which even SNL caricatured after the first debate between the two men.
Santorum's personality easily yields itself to mockery and caricature. Note I didn't mention his positions, just his style, the way he carries himself.
He also needs to work out, --------- Romney worked out all the time before and during the campaign. So why was Santorum wandering around in a sweater vest that only made him look more portly and plump than he might really have been.
Again, since such stuff influences the electorate, and we have stats to indicate as much, Santorum should have altered how he presented himself on the campaign trail. I didn't suggest alter position or principle, not that, but how he came across.
The guy simply wasn't ready. Real candidates have this type of crap down, and down cold.
Amnonymussa| 4.13.12 @ 9:46PM
Good riddance to Mr. Unfunded Medicare Expansion, the Highfalutin' Captain Earmark. Your masquerade as "conservative" as ended; your fifteen minutes lasted far too long.