Rick Santorum spent a year on the dusty roads of Iowa, and when his Moment in the Sun arrived last night, he was Ready. Here are my recollections of his words….. Rick’s immigrant Grandfather, a foe of Mussolini’s fascism, whose big hands dug a new life out of Pennsylvania’s coal mines for his family, the dignity and worth of hard work, the primacy of Faith, keeping manufacturing jobs in the USA, cutting taxes, removing State socialism from a Free economy, assuring peace through Strength in the World, and then proudly standing tall as a Maverick conservative…. Santorum’s combination of themes was brilliant, among the best I’ve heard in years. You don’t need a teleprompter to tell this story, but you do need a Heart to understand it.
These ideas trace to William F. Buckley Jr’s. synthesis of modern conservatism in the 1950s with his “fusion” of formerly conflicting elements, a fusion Ronald Reagan perfected in the 1980s. A lot of reflection and thought went into Santorum’s message last night, and it is one to elevate American spirits, and possibly win a General Election in November.