Lemme Tell Ya Bout Rick Santorum
I lived in PA for many years while Santorum was Senator, and, in fact, voted against him in his crushing defeat in 2006. I also saw Santorum speak to a large, mixed group in probably Spring 2005. A little context, then.
Some people don't remember now, but immediately after he was "re"-elected in 2004, George Bush and his cronies embarked on an initiative to essentially privatize Social Security. This was the great transformation that Bush's "political capital" was to be spent on, and it was an utter catastrophe. The proposed change in policy was so unpopular that many GOPers now pretend it never happened, that Bush never waged a campaign to privatize Social Security that was roundly rejected by the American people. But it happened.
Rick Santorum was the head of the spear for these efforts.
Having twice lost Pennsylvania, and rather badly, Bush sent Santorum into the hinterlands and cities, on something like a 19 location talking tour to sell Social Security privatization. This was the test run, the attempt to sell the Bush changes to "middle America," a supposed "swing state," Philly and "Pennsyltucky," from Scranton to Stillers-burgh, and everything in between. It was a colossal failure. Halfway through his tour, support for privatization actually started declining in Pennsylvania. By the end of it, the Bushies tucked tail and abandoned the policy altogether, leaving Santorum very much with his dick in the wind, as it were.
Certainly, Santorum's defeat can be easily attributed to the bad year for Republicans in 2006, and to his bizarre housing issues (dude essentially didn't live in Pennsylvania, yet had some weirdo and utterly corrupt arrangement relative to the kids' schooling), but I think it was his Social Security privatization tour that really sunk him. It was that bad.
So, I attended one of these events at a, let's say, rather famous of late PA university, ahem. The YAF kids tried to stock it, but the local students Democrats and local Democratic organizations were ready. About 20 minutes before Rick came on, about 50 senior citizens filed in and sat in the front row, to much applause. Here's the take away:
1) On Economics: Santorum is really good at talking to friendly audiences, and really bad at talking to mixed audiences. There are some conservatives who make absurd conservative economic arguments, but it's difficult to pick them apart, because they lay them out in this really attractive way that taps into fundamental American values. The surface is glossy, and hard to crack. Santorum is not one of these. He makes really glossy arguments that appear well articulated, but they collapse under even minor pressure. Santorum's argument for privatization was pitiful. Even undergraduate students were recognizing the flaws and holes and revving up for the microphone halfway through the talk. He got, to put it mildly, sliced and diced on the logic of his argument in the Q&A. It was almost painful to watch. Almost.
2) On Social Issues: Santorum is a fanatic. I don't use that word lightly. He's literally unable to control himself, as we've seen in the last few days. If somebody raises a social issue (and, during the Q&A at his event, it was the LGBT students doing the raising) he comes after them with nasty, aggressive, and nonsensical attacks that actually work against common American values. He seems incapable of stopping himself. He eviscerated an almost timid undergraduate student with some lengthy harangue that had even the old folks shaking their heads in disgust. It was an embarrassing display, and it was all "Happiness is not a goal in life," a real will-to-suffer argument more appropriate to 14th century Popes.
To summarize, then, Rick Santorum is most akin to this guy: You and your friends are out at a bar, and some dude at the bar comes over and starts making conversation. At first he seems like an alright guy, and you're all laughing and drinking, haha what a card! But in almost no time, maybe 40 minutes, he starts getting aggressive and annoying. Since you feel like you liked him at first, you entertain this, but he keeps going and going, until everyone is rolling their eyes and turning their back on him when he talks. Santorum is that guy. He really is.
It's also why his campaign is unsustainable. Right now, the media is in the "what a card!" stage of the Santorum-at-the-bar analogy. It doesn't last long. He can't deal with mixed groups (largely because he really can't knit together the arguments he needs), and he's hair-trigger on social issues. Santorum will be done by February. I'll bet a Grilled Sticky on it.
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