Radio shows

by Jen Green

Since his fourth-place, but stronger than expected, finish in Ames, Rick Santorum has gained a bit of steam–and its showing in his campaigning. Santorum has become more outspoken–resembling his performance at the Fox News debate much more than the performance I saw in Pella for the Family Leader’s forum. On Sunday, he made the case that if America is looking for a president who will lead the the charge on entitlement reform, he’s the one. He said although many might want to “pigeon hole” him because of his stance on social issues, he also has the record on the cultural and foreign policy matters.

He then hit back strongly against Maxine Waters who said on Saturday that “the Tea Party can go straight to hell.” Santorum’s reply that Waters is “a caricature of what’s wrong with Congress . . . [and she is] vile and she’s always been that way” is Allen West approved (he called another Democrat “vile” recently) and a great soundbite for a headline. But, he didn’t stop there–he used his platform on a New York radio show to defend the tea party and the philosphies it stands for, and to futher chastise the left for its anti-traditional American values stance.

And he’s using this momentum to go home to fundraise. Santorum will be in Pennsylvania next week in eight different cities in the hopes to get the campaign on a more financially secure footing. He pulled off the Ames fourth place finish with very little money–and since then has had the best fundraising of his campaign so far.

But, it’s not all good news for Santorum. He did not score an invite to Senator Jim DeMint’s Labor Day presidential forum in Columbia, S.C. Santorum’s stances on marriage and life make him an attractive choice for the conservative state, so the slight is an unfortunate one for his campaign. DeMint chose to use RealClearPolitics.com’s polling percentages as his criteria for inviting candidates–which means Rudy Guliani gets an invite but Santorum does not.