Is Santorum For Real?

After scoring a dead heat with Mitt Romney in Iowa, Rick Santorum is the latest "non-Mitt" candidate to catch fire. Will he last? Charles Krauthammer seems to think so.

Krauthammer, writing in the National Review Online, called Santorum "an admirably worthy conservative alternative" to Mitt Romney. Many have derided Santorum because of his very sharp social conservative views. But I wonder if  Krauthammer is on to something with his view that conservative "Reagan Democrats" may be looking for someone who does hold to some old-fashioned bedrock social viewpoints. Those voters have seen "Occupy Wall Street" and they are not impressed.

Several years ago, I sent Santorum a few bucks as he tried unsuccessfully to hold his PA Senate seat. I hadn't thought much about his chances as a GOP Presidential nominee. A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a link to a website where you answer questions and it tells you which candidate you most agree with. I expected it to say Newt Gingrich, but I was surprised to learn it was Santorum. I would not have thought so, because I don't consider myself a strident social conservative. But after looking at some of his other views, I realized that I did support quite a bit of his "platform"

It remains to be seen if Santorum is a contender or a pretender. But I think Krauthammer may be correct in his assessment that Santorum is "the first challenger {to Romney} to be plausibly presidential: knowledgeable, articulate, experienced, of stable character and authentic ideology". Time will tell.