After strong Iowa showing, Santorum camp looks ahead to SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. – As Rick Santorum’s supporters celebrated his strong Iowa showing, they were also making preparations for a push through South Carolina that will begin even before the New Hampshire primary vote.

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum addresses a crowd in Iowa on Jan 3.

Santorum’s South Carolina fans, some of whom were gathered at his relatively well-appointed campaign headquarters to watch the caucus returns, will be able to see him in the Palmetto State on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 8th, when he stops in Greenville just two days before the New Hampshire vote.


His campaign also added another South Carolina staffer: political consultant Andrew Boucher, a former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican primary – a ramping-up of staff that suggests Santorum will seek to capitalize on his Iowa momentum here, a state that has picked every Republican presidential candidate since 1980.

Recommended: 11 things you might not now about Santorum

Santorum’s supporters, about 15 of whom remained at the headquarters as the final votes trickled in, were ecstatic about his neck-and-neck finish with Mitt Romney – but some of them said they weren’t surprised he did so well.

“I knew this was going to happen,” Kathy Hughes, a retired teacher from Mt. Pleasant, said. “So many people were saying, ‘why are you supporting him? Santorum can’t win!’ But I knew.”

She added that the phones at Santorum’s headquarters here had been ringing non-stop over the past few days. The phone did buzz a few times into the wee hours of Wednesday morning; the last call, Hughes said, came from a voter in Peoria, Illinois who was trying to get in touch with one of Santorum’s early-state headquarters.

Joan Peters, a member of the Charleston Tea Party board from Moncks Corner, said she supported Santorum’s decision not to skip New Hampshire and come directly to South Carolina as Michele Bachmann is doing and Rick Perry was going to do before he announced he’d first return to Austin to reassess his campaign.

“He’s probably not going to win because Mitt Romney’s got New Hampshire pretty sewn up, but he’ll do well and then he’ll come down to South Carolina and the money’s going to start coming in,” Peters said. “People now realize what we’ve always realized, which is that he’s a credible candidate and he can win.”

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  •  

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    No sweat, given the *nature of piety-austerity hysteria* coming from the *take the country back in the name of Guns & Bibles* crowd currently occupying the House as a majority and as the *Call to the Tormented that God is Great* that is this thing called the 2012 GOP / Tea Bag Prez hopefuls … inSanatorium should do pretty good in this next land of right-wing christian fanatics ...

    :nutzo:

    • 4 votes
    Reply#77 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 4:39 PM EST

    the crazy has to continue..we would be bored..and fox would have NO NEWS TO COVER

    • 2 votes
    #77.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:28 PM EST
    Reply

    Santorium will do really well here in SC. All of our Teaparty members will love him. Romney has to lose as Queen Nikki, the governor, endorsed him.

      Reply#78 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 4:42 PM EST

      What's funny about all this is that nothing that is put on this blog or any other is worth the time it takes to write it including this one.

      It is probably safer than talking about this stuff in a bar or over the dinner table.

        Reply#79 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 4:54 PM EST

        Interesting - an article about Santorum is next to an article about how a catholic bishop resigned after if was found out he has 2 kids. Seems the more religious someone pretends to be, the more ghosts are in the closest - like child porn, child molesting, banging the neighbors wife or teen age daughter. Remember the anti-gay senator from Idaho? Soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. How about the anti-gay minister who was found seeing gay prostitutes? Of course there is Newt with his future ex-wife.

        Wake up voters - we need freedom FROM religion more than we need freedom OF religion if any of these wacko's get elected.

        • 2 votes
        Reply#80 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:02 PM EST

        Romeny will evendually get the nomination. The sad part of that is the Republican people don't want him.

        No one wants Romney. The republican's didn't want him in 2008 and they don't want him now.

        What kind of president will he be if more than half the country don't want him and just voted for him out of spite

        A flip flopper is just a nice way of calling him a liar.

        Obama for 2012

        • 1 vote
        Reply#81 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:04 PM EST

        Peace

        One problem with your theory, the people do not want Obama either.

        If none of the above were on the ballot - that, would win!

        • 4 votes
        #81.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:07 PM EST

        Mt Mike I was thinking the same thing. As much I don't really want to vote for Romney I will if he's the choice against Obama.

        • 1 vote
        #81.2 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:39 PM EST
        Reply

        Santorum can not get elected President. Simple!

        • 2 votes
        Reply#82 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:05 PM EST

        My GF had a case of Santorum this morning. I love that girl!

          Reply#83 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:06 PM EST
          John Simonvia FacebookDeleted

          South Carolina where tinfoil hats are the norm.

          • 2 votes
          Reply#85 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:13 PM EST

          hahahaha

            #85.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:29 PM EST
            Reply

            Rick likes to push his views on the country and say that everyone should be 'this way'. My view is that couples should not have more than 2 kids. How would Rick (with 7 kids) feel if that was made law and anyone violating it was a criminal?

            • 1 vote
            Reply#86 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:15 PM EST

            They'd probably feel like they were in China.

            • 1 vote
            #86.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:50 PM EST
            Reply

            Santorum lost his senate seat in Pennsylvania because he was sending his children to a very expensive private school at tax payer expense. He is just another guy who wants to milk the public for his own personal gain. His family values are for his family only. He did not care that the school district who had to pay for the school could have used the money to care for those who needed to attend public school.

            • 2 votes
            Reply#87 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:15 PM EST

            He must be related to Bush 43

            • 2 votes
            #87.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:18 PM EST

            MLF, you're somewhat mistaken. The school was a PUBLIC cyber charter school in Pennsylvania. I've had my own kids in the same school so I know what I'm talking about. There's no tuition for PA residents. You could technically be anywhere in the world and still "attend" that school as it is on the Internet. The controversy came about because in order to get the free tuition, he claimed the children were PA residents even though they really lived with him in Virginia. He based that on his ownership of a home in Allegheny County, PA. Yes, it was still fraudulent, and so petty. You're allowed to use the same curriculum as an independent homeschooler as long as you PAY for it. (Virginia has no public cyber charters.) Or you can just homeschool independently, something that I'm now doing for very little money by purchasing used books.

              #87.2 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 10:08 PM EST
              Reply

              Santorum is almost as pathetic as Obama. He was senator in PA for one term, there is a reason for this he was such a hypocrite!

                Reply#88 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:17 PM EST

                Love reading the liberal drivel as written by these uninformed dum-dums herein. I would bet 70% of the liberal posters herein could not name their two U.S. Senators on a surprise question.

                They write of separation of church and state, which to them is a politician who says they believe, or a manger in a public square and other paltry issues, when they do not even understand the Framer's intent of the Establishment Clause in the 1st. Clue in: the only intent of the Establishment Clause was to make sure that a national, compulsory religion was never created by our gov. such as the Church of England.

                They write of the evils of capitalism yet seem to not understand one iota the crony capitalism being practiced now by their fearless fraud Barack Milhouse Obama. Never mind the simple truth that wealth makes possible at-risk capital ventures that employ people albeit with no guarantees.

                They write of a Republican House that has does nothing even though dozens of House bills focusing on economic recovery have been sent to that fossil Reid in the Senate where he has buried them - probably under one of his beloved promengranate trees in NV he was pining for before the last recess.

                In the end, they write the soundbites they see on MSLSD TV. They know nothing at all. Which is why Obama will lose in November. Because more people do know more than the liberal buffoons in our midst that comprise no more than a minority of our body politic.

                • 1 vote
                Reply#89 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:18 PM EST

                Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

                • 1 vote
                #89.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:21 PM EST

                @moveforward - thanks for supporting my main point.

                • 1 vote
                #89.2 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:24 PM EST

                Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

                • 1 vote
                #89.3 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:29 PM EST

                I am a flaming liberal...I find Obama too conservative for me, I also hold a Masters Degree in Business and have been a delegate to a state convention. Feinsten and Boxer....now you owe me an answer, who ties your shoes in the morning or do you wear slip-ons?

                • 1 vote
                #89.4 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:43 PM EST

                It's obvious Rebel is an avid Faux Noize loon-bat ... let's do a reality check ...

                Let's check out what happened in the final moments in Iowa, where right-wing christian jihadism is prevalent and why inSanatorium comes out as the big winner ...

                He waited until the last moment to pull-out his trump card (no the-donald pun intended)

                He simply put a shill in the audience on the last day to ask about his deceased son ... then commenced to cry on que … this appeased those clueless undecided’s who found a niche ... the shooting of abortionists as Gods-calling that is the one true political cohesion of today’s right-wing ... as well as its demise ...

                You see, one of the most disturbing aspects of Conservatives and Tea Baggers is their wretched and absolute fanatical extremist view to impose a *Faith-Based Government* upon us ...

                All of it based on the pro-life agenda where outlawing abortion and planned parenthood is their main concern for governance ... (see Bohners Jobs Creations bills currently at zero but about 9 anti-abortion bills where some of the same bills passed 3 or 4 times in the House ... )

                Santorums' experience with this is quite sad ... and twisted ... concerning Santorum and his wife's *unusual reaction* to the death of their infant son, Gabriel, in 1996 ... the Santorum's brought the baby home with them after he lived only a couple of hours to be "introduced" to their three living children ...

                After this, he and like the extreme right-wing members of Congress who are absolutely tyrannical calling for the criminalization of all abortion and supporting states' rights to ban contraception ... by enacting publically and within House & Senate committee meetings ... the *morbid fetishization of the fetus* ... from using plastic embryos and absolute grisly posters at congressional hearings especially in front of and at women activists ... to the public display of this *morbidity* on billboards ...

                And you ask, this has what to do with Santorum as candidate for President of the United States of America ?

                See G.W. Bush who was forced to look at his stillborn brother in a jar by his mother ... not disclosed until 2010 ... (see Decision Points) ... several years after the Bush Holocaust on America and the world ...

                Just like Palin who turned you out as a bleeding-heart conservative with Trig, Santorum ho's out his family and his tragedy ... just like every single 2012 GOP / Tea Bag Prez hopeful has ho'ng you out with their family tragedies ...

                Who knows ... maybe another Tucson Massacre will occur so inSanatorium can juice you up with another *Guns & Bibles are Great* Blood Libel speech .. oh wait, he did when he exited Iowa ...

                • 1 vote
                #89.5 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:52 PM EST

                Nobody wants to "outlaw Planned Parenthood". They just don't want the federal government to fund it. Big difference. It's like the difference between opposed to Prohibition and expecting the government to provide free "drink stamps" that are good at your local bar. Since Planned Parenthood is the biggest provider of something that millions of Americans abhor, abortion, why should they be forced to support it with their taxes? (BTW, if you counter by saying, "why should Americans who opposed the invasion of Iraq had to pay for it", I AGREE with you.)

                  #89.6 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 10:12 PM EST
                  Reply

                  So all of the talk is on the family values Santorium espouses who is just a sounding brass in the temple. Let's vote for Ron Paul who will change the country for the better like bringing our military home and avoiding wars. What's wrong with legalizing marijuana? For you family values people, Ron Paul is against abortion but doesn't hawk it like Sounding Brass Santorium.

                  • 1 vote
                  Reply#90 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:22 PM EST

                  First off, Ron Paul would be 78 by the time he took his oath of office. That's10 years older than Reagan was. Second, he can't win. And his foreign policy goes a bit far for most people. I'm encouraged by the support for him, though, because it suggests people are moving in a more libertarian direction.

                    #90.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 10:15 PM EST
                    Reply

                    I think its 7 chances in 10 that Romney will be the tea b*g nominee even though he's a closet human. But I'm hoping for Santorum; here is a man that can't beat Obama; however, the economy could. The current trend (not firmly established) is that things are getting better, slowly but better. Santorum will need to prey to his God that things go to hell in a hand basket.

                    • 2 votes
                    Reply#91 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:29 PM EST
                    HengDooDeleted

                    One by one the crazies drop. Santorum is just this week's flavor. The Romney attack machine should make short work of him--there's probably a reason Santorum was named one of the most corrupt senators in 2006 by the Committee for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (http://wearechangetv.us/2012/01/santorum-named-most-corrupt-congressman-in-2006/#axzz1iX38LQ3X). The big question is will the really conservative Republicans swallow hard and vote for Romney in the general election or will they stay home.

                      Reply#93 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:47 PM EST

                      What American citizens need is a special prosecutor to thoroughly investigate every member of Congress - term limits by justice. Its timely to do it now, before the November election. Congress isn't doing anything important anyway.

                        #93.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:59 PM EST

                        Affinit5y1, I appreciate your views, but the Supreme Court has said that you can't have term limits without a Constitutional amendment. Who in Congress would vote for it?

                          #93.2 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 10:16 PM EST
                          Reply

                          This wing nut nutter wants to bomb Iran and start WWIII. Someone please restrain! He is a crazed dangerous psychopath that wants to kill millions in order to get elected. F him in the strongest way. NO MORE WARS!!!!!

                          • 1 vote
                          Reply#94 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:51 PM EST

                          There is a big, ugly Transformer coming for Rick. Its name is Super PAC Man. Romney is the Chosen One by the 1% with the big bucks. The Rogers Court has made that possible - judicial activism at work.

                            Reply#95 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:51 PM EST

                            We are going to eventually see a big fight between the TP and Romney. Remember these are Christians who judge and criticize others beliefs. The last I saw some 30% of GOP voters in SC believe Obama is a Kenyan born Muslim. That's how extreme this state really is at the core! Pledges are de rigueur, as are CWP's and if you aren't Christian don't bother to apply. Atheists and agnostics cannot even run for office in this state. So welcome flavor of the month Santorum (ewww! Look that word up in the Urban Dictionary)! He will be the Godsend until he too falters. These are the people who have supported about 5 different candidates to this point.

                            But they do not want Romney. I don't think he can win this state which will be an embarassment. None of the TP's I work with will even mention his name. Romney isn't a Christian (only Baptists and Methodists count) to them thus they don't want to be seen supporting him. Truly pathetic because Sarah Palin running as an independent could beat Obama head to head in this bass ackwards state.

                              #95.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 7:32 PM EST
                              Reply

                              In his new role as the conservative savior, Rick Santorum is as bright and shiny as a new penny. Time will tell if he has staying power.

                              Michele Backmann is gone, who is scary as hell, but easily the best looking of the mainstream candidates.

                              • 1 vote
                              Reply#96 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:03 PM EST

                              He should change his name. Santorum sounds like a weird religious cult.

                              • 1 vote
                              Reply#97 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:06 PM EST

                              But you can tell that santorum does not believe in global warming. I tell you one of the main problems is that we are heating up the planet and that the population increases by 350% every 80 years. 7B today, 25B in 2090. Santorum increased his family by 350% in just 20 years.

                              • 1 vote
                              Reply#98 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:13 PM EST
                              Alf77Deleted

                              hey tea trash you made your bed ..so lay in it

                              • 1 vote
                              Reply#100 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:31 PM EST

                              Perhaps a few folks need to read the report attached to this ...google "CREW" or citizens for responsibility and ethics in government. Google 2006 report of 20 most corrupt members of congress (and 3 Senators)

                                Reply#101 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:36 PM EST

                                On November 7th this year what you Fox followers have been saying will be true.

                                The answer will be "it's Obama's fault"

                                The question will be how did the GOP lose so badly.

                                • 4 votes
                                Reply#102 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:37 PM EST

                                hahahaha

                                • 1 vote
                                #102.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:37 PM EST
                                Reply

                                thank God ..God told rick to stay away from Texas..and continue with his crusade of crazy...

                                • 1 vote
                                Reply#103 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:40 PM EST

                                Rick ManOnDog will do well in a state filled with people like him....racist, uneducated, violent and religiously-insane. But, in the likelyhood that Mr. Gaybuttdrippage doesn't win the teabagger nomination, I'm sure those gun and by-bull clingers will have no problem supporting Mr. Magicpants.

                                • 3 votes
                                Reply#104 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:40 PM EST

                                yes we can just call them what they are the mark of the beast party

                                • 2 votes
                                #104.1 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 6:42 PM EST

                                Like most Leftist, Liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Left wing Kook Democrats, you're sooooo blindly ignorant and foolish. You are actually equating Islam with Judaism and Christianity, you fool? The Muslims, like your guy B. Hussein Obama, don't believe in the God of Abraham, like Jewish and Christian people do, you yutz!!

                                They believe in Allah, who believes in giving people "paradise" if they die killing people they can't (or won't) convert to their religion. Do Christians or Jews kill others who won't convert to their religion? You and most people like you are the most ignorant and foolish people on the planet. You know NOTHING about Christianity, nor Judaism, but you speak about it as a surgeon would discuss one of his surgeries with another surgeon and the person shining his/her shoes on the street would try to interupt and give his own "opinion" on what the surgeons should do in their next surgery.

                                Judeo-Christian values is what founded this great nation, what freed the slaves, what brought us freedom from discrimination, Jim Crow Laws, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Liberalism has brought the U.S.A. nothing but generations of illegitimate children, poverty and dependence on the federal government for nothing more than votes. Get a life and learn something about "religion" before you act like you know something about it, when you know less than a 12-year-old in Sunday school does. Ha!!

                                • 1 vote
                                #104.2 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 7:59 PM EST

                                johny bee --- thanks for the short course on history. you and sarah pain should team up and write a history of the world. i'm sure it will enlighten all of humanity. you might even get a nobel. btw i'll still vote for obama.

                                  #104.3 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 8:31 PM EST

                                  The Muslims, like your guy B. Hussein Obama, don't believe in the God of Abraham, like Jewish and Christian people do, you yutz!! They believe in Allah

                                  Wrong. Allah is just the Arab name for "God" and like it or don't, the word is used by both Lebanese Christians and Israeli Jews from Yemen! The Qu'ran is like a "Readers Digest" version of the Bible; it includes most of the more famous Bible stories, but of course it sometimes interprets them differently. For instance, they think Abraham was instructed to sacrifice his son Ishmael rather than Isaac. Muslims believe that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus was a great prophet. They even think he didn't die on the cross at all, but was magically rescued by Allah and taken up to Heaven, like the prophet Elijah. That is not a courtesy Allah extends to very many people. I am not a Muslim, but I've had many Muslim friends and I have read an English version Qu'ran.

                                  • 1 vote
                                  #104.4 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 10:28 PM EST

                                  OomYaaqub,
                                  You are dead wrong on your entire above post. Dead wrong. You need to re-read your Bible, Torah and Koran. They are not intertwined, nor are they all one and the same. There IS NO Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Bible, nor Torah.

                                  While he (Muhammad) did exist centuries after the death of Jesus, he is only exalted and worshipped by Muslims, you twit!!! Allah is their "moon god" who was actually a pagan god in Arabia during pre-Islamic times. Educate yourself, before making a fool of yourself.

                                  • 1 vote
                                  #104.5 - Wed Jan 4, 2012 11:26 PM EST

                                  I sincerely doubt you have read any of these holy books.

                                    #104.6 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 12:07 AM EST

                                    There IS NO Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Bible, nor Torah.

                                    Of course not, since he lived centuries after the Bible was written and compiled. The Bible doesn't mention Albert Einstein or Mother Theresa, either. Prophecy in the Bibllical sense doesn't mean predicting the future so much as it means calling the Jews back to HaShem.

                                    While he (Muhammad) did exist centuries after the death of Jesus, he is only exalted and worshipped by Muslims, you twit!!!

                                    Mohammad isn't worshipped by anyone since he was a mere human being. And calling people names is a violation of COH. Reported.

                                      #104.7 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 3:59 PM EST
                                      Reply
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