So apparently Rick Santorum has some kind of big announcement that he’s making today. But what could it be? Surely its not that he’s running for President since everyone already knows that. So what else could it be?
“It might be that somebody has pranked his Twitter. We're not really sure,” Glenn joked of Santorum’s announcement.
After welcoming Rick Santorum to the show, Glenn asked about his recent success in the New Hampshire and South Carolina star polls. Santorum said, “I sort of do things the old-fashioned way. I get out and try to earn it, try to work hard, and spend a lot of time in those states and, you know, among activists, you know, people who are paying attention and watching all the candidates, we're doing very well. So, I'm encouraged. I don't look at national polls. I look at doing the right thing.”
“We're not going to be biggest or the best funded candidate,” he added. “I represented the State of Pennsylvania. I mean, I was elected in a state that's a swing state.”
“I was able to go out and win the election. I defeated three democratic incumbents. You know, in my first election, I was redistricted in with another democratic incumbent. I won that election. Then I ran against a third democratic incumbent when I won for my Senate seat in the State of Pennsylvania and then the following election, George Bush lost the state by four points and I won it by five. So, I mean, I think I have a track record of being able to put together organizations, to be able to defeat democratic incumbents and get a message that's a winning message.”
What is Santorum’s message and platform? Surpisingly, it’s not just the economy.
“Nobody knows what the economy is going to look like 18 months from now. It may be horrible and if it's horrible, probably any Republican who wins the election is going to win, but if it's horrible, if it looks like things are improving, we better have a scenario, we better have some sort of narrative that, you know, we're going to be able to go to the American people and say, look, this is why we need to replace him, even though the economy may be improving and the narrative for me is freedom. The narrative for me is that we have a President who does not believe in the American people. He believes that government should be making decisions for everybody.”
Clearly, Santorum does not believe government should be the decision maker in people’s lives. However, Glenn had to ask about Santorum’s support for prescription drug programs and No Child Left Behind.
“You know, I fought against making it a universal benefit which is what made it so costly and I argued that we should pay for it. I lost. And so I made a decision. I liked some things. I didn't like some things and I made a decision that, you know, I liked the things more than I didn't. Retrospect, that probably was a bad call but I think we do need to do a drug prescription benefit. We need to pay for it,” Santorum said.
Santorum said that if there was one benefit that emerged form No Child Left Behind, it showed there were enormous flaws in our education system.
“He's a good man. He is a decent, and honest man. I may not agree with everything that he says, but if you're looking for a good, decent, honest man, Rick Santorum is that guy,” Glenn said.