Don't expect a New Nixon campaign from Rick Santorum.
While the former Pennsylvania senator may not push his family values agenda as much as he did in 2012 in his effort to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, he's not shrinking from it. But he's also trying to break through the Big Media stereotyping of his candidacy on the nut right fringe of the party by exhibiting the same foreign policy experience and appeals to everyday workers as he did four years ago.
Nixon famously rebounded from his grumbling denouement - "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more" - following his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial campaign to become a team-playing, whirlwind campaigner for senatorial candidates in 1966 and a solutions-offering, bring-the-boys-home presidential candidate in 1968.
During Santorum's second-place finish to Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican campaign, he was tagged by the national media and left-wing pundits - to use the words of just one - as a "race-baiter," "adamantly homophobic," "opposed to reproductive rights" and "hostile to contraceptive use."
What got less traction were his opposition to the Obama administration's policies with Iran and Russia, which have now worsened; his desire to repeal Obamacare, which has raised insurance rates for most people who already had insurance; his insistence on no cuts in defense spending in partial light of the threat of radical Islam; his support of a secure border and no benefits for illegal immigrants; and his push for a flatter, simpler tax.
That Santorum was on display in a radio interview on WGOW Wednesday and afterward at a brief news conference.
He wants, among other things, his "pro-American worker" stance to be recognized. That stance includes tenets like a "flatter, fairer tax plan," a $1.50 rise in the minimum wage over three years and an immigration policy that "does not undermine workers in the country legally."
On the latter issue, Santorum noted that NumbersUSA, on its Worker-Protection Immigration Grade Card, gave him an "A." The next best grade for candidates of either party was a "B-."
"Our immigration policy," he said, "is not working for Americans."
Santorum also pointed out with a chuckle that someone had referred to him as the "senior statesman" among the Republican contenders. In fact, he did serve for eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee and, after losing his Senate re-election campaign in 2006, did join the Ethics and Public Policy Center as director of the Washington, D.C., think tank's America's Enemies Program.
He had warned early on, he said, of radical Islam as the "gathering storm of the 21st century."
"If we don't stop ISIS" and the burgeoning nuclear capability of Iran, Santorum said, the United States will pay dearly.
The Obama administration's plan in the Middle East, meanwhile, is to do "as little as possible," he said. Wednesday's decision to send 450 more troops to Iraq to advise and assist local forces was merely "a [public relations] move, not a serious wartime move." But, he added, "he can't do the same thing."
Domestically, since Santorum's not in the Senate, he won't be part of any decision, but he said he would recommend Congress "act on a temporary basis" if the Supreme Court this month slices out subsidies for Obamacare premiums used by those who are insured through HealthCare.gov.
Although he would prefer Congress start over on the law, he does not expect the administration to go for that. But "support for those with [potentially skyrocketing] premiums" at least until the next president is elected is necessary. "We should avoid people being hurt by an unpopular implementation of law."
A second expected Supreme Court decision this month involving the possible nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, Santorum said, could be the "equivalent of Roe vs. Wade" and will cause a lot of issues to come up.
Among them, he said, is what appears to be the administration's decision to consider people who disagree with its advocacy of same-sex marriage as "bigots" and potentially "not eligible for certain programs" such as 501c3 (tax exempt) status. That would constitute a dangerous attack on "religious liberty. I'm hopeful they would not go forward on that."
Santorum won Hamilton County and Tennessee in the 2012 presidential primary and went on to win 11 states en route to his second-place finish. Whether that will translate to his appearance in the upper tier of candidates for 2016 may depend on fundraising and how he is painted by the national media. (See commentary below.)
But his well-considered stance on many of the issues most Americans feel are important qualifies him for at least top-tier consideration.