Why not Rick Santorum?

The 2011 GOP debates have concluded. We've seen candidates rise and candidates fall. We've seen the Washington media and GOP establishment gnashing their teeth trying to define "the" conservative candidate for the Tea Party.

Sarah Palin supporters have seemingly fallen into two camps: those who have let go and are examining or supporting other candidates and those who refuse to let go and instead hang onto the notion that the Governor can be convinced to rejoin the field.

The one common denominator amongst all is the palpable fear of an Obama re-election and what that re-election would mean. Republican elites fear an erosion of their power in the halls of government from a partisan point of view. Tea Party and Sarah Palin supporters fear the erosion of individual liberties through the continued growth of government. For me, I stand firm with the later.

Something happened in the very recent past that gave me a bit more clarity. It happened on December 1st while I was watching Governor Sarah Palin's appearance on the Hannity Show (skip ahead to the 9:00 mark). Governor Palin drew my attention back to Senator Rick Santorum when she talked about "ideological consistency".

That got me thinking: Why NOT Rick Santorum? I have to admit that I hadn't paid a lot of attention to him in recent months due to all the media attention on the "flavor of the week". To reacquaint myself with Senator Santorum, I went back to a conversation he had with the San Fernando Valley Republican Club prior to the GOP debate at the Reagan Library back in May.

I'm going to be playing clips of that conversation tomorrow on the Roderic Deane Show. I encourage you to listen in at Noon ET. With that conversation in mind, take another look at his performance during the last few GOP debates.

Cross-posted from RodericDeane.com