Ames, Iowa (CNN) – Rick Santorum is one happy guy.
The GOP presidential candidate and former senator from Pennsylvania came in fourth at the Republican straw poll in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, behind Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and finishing just over 600 votes behind former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
“We were in range of three. I mean I felt like here’s a guy who spent a million bucks in this and we spent a fraction of that and here we are within a few hundred votes of him and I feel very, very good about that. I feel we’re positioned exactly were we want to be,” Santorum told CNN. “If you look at the top four, three of them can win the caucus. And I really feel that Ron Paul can’t win this caucus and can’t win this nomination and the other three candidates have a potential to do so. The top three tickets get punched out of Iowa, so I feel really good about that.”
On Friday, Santorum told CNN’s Candy Crowley that if he finished lower than fifth place, he would have to consider ending his bid for the White House. But he says his fourth-place finish could give him more attention by the media.
“Hopefully the media will start paying more attention to us because they sure haven’t been doing much. At future debates hopefully I’m not going to be put on the far end of the debate and be forgotten about the first hour. Maybe this will help.”
Santorum says his campaign “had something to prove here, that we had a base that were building and that we were a campaign that should be paid attention to.”
As for what’s next, he says he’s going to continue to “be the little engine that could campaign no matter what happens. We’re just going to keep plugging away.”
From CNN Politics
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It's very scarry when voters seriously consider religious radicals like Santorum, Bachmann, and Perry who would like to legislate morals if they could. Not much difference between them and the Taliban. We're going to put our belief in God in your life and your bedroom whether you like it or not. And as if we haven't learned enough about electing presidents from Texas! Look what that state has given us: Three presidents who were disasters! A Johnson and two Bushes!!! LOL.
It's a long time between now and election day. Dont' give Sanitorium a snow-ball's chance, afterall, the voters of Pennsylvania fired him, or Bachman, too unstable, but Perry is real scarry.
Wow, it sounds like this doofus is starting to believe his own press releases! He finishes fourth and thinks that is good! He is a nobody.
Santorum has no prayer – he is a loser in every sense of the word
Santorum, lol. Talk about a repiglican with a name problem....Google it. So, Ricky says the media haven't been paying attention to them?! What a load of bs – CNN has had roughly 30 articles/videos on republicans in the last two days. What do you want, Ricky? – 24/7 propaganda/brainwashing, like fox news offers? Reactionaries like you would love that, wouldn't you, Ricky?
Rick Santorum is the staus quo. He is the same as George Bush, a big govt republican who wants to tell you how to live your life. He claims our rights come from our creator yet he has no issues with secret CIA prisons where people are held for years without a charge. He points out how harshly Iranians treat gays but has no problem limiting gay rights here in America. He really does want to go to war with Iran and continue our militarism all over the globe. This guy is an extremist if there ever was one. Ron Paul 2012. Ron Paul will end our militarism and give states back their rights to decide whats best.
Bachmann, I can see coming in, but Paul? Give me a break, this guy has a loose screw! I really like Santorum, Bachmann, Gingrich, Romney and Perry, I'll have too follow up and see who I think has a best chance to beat out BHO.
Half the GOP contenders weren't even in the poll and he feels good about coming in last in the few that were. This man is crazy to by happy with that.
Meanwhile, the latest instance of a republicans salacious sexual actions becoming a news story occurred Friday when it was reported that state Rep. Phil Hinkle, R-Indianapolis, offered to pay an 18-year-old Indianapolis man as much as $140 "for a good time" at a downtown hotel.
Hinkle was responding to the man's Craigslist ad, in which he said he was searching for a "sugga daddy." What is it with these republicans going on about morality and constantly screwing young men/boys, and having sex with family members? They now have a long history of this, now at well-over 400 party members/aides charged with actual criminal behavior in this manner, all while preaching about "god" and "family". Creepy.
We got fourth place! We got fourth place!
Haha, it's so much funnier in real life.
Ah Rick Santoprum – a never-ending source of giggles and eyerolls.
Sick Rantorum,.....Dr. Ron Paul schooled you on foreign policy the other night and has a hell of a lot more organization, backing, and PRINCIPLES than you. He's the only one that makes sense and people are noticing.. You have no base in PA. you have no base anywhere. Go home you big government-loving fake. conservative (neocon) who would like to use the heavy hand of government to force others to abide by his personal views. Ron Paul needs to give you a reading assignment like he did JulieAnnie.
Damn sexist media, ignoring Santorum just because he is a man...
Little does Santorum realize that Ron Paul has a better chance of winning a caucus then he does.
Idon't see how anyone could vote for a group of people that will not protect their basic entitlements. The GOP will support the wealthy at all cost! They are relying on tampering, bogus vote counts, obstacles, etc to win during elections.
Ron Paul represents We the People. Rick Santorum (Google him) represents certain people of a particular moral lifestyle vs. everyone else via the force of the Feds. He, and every other candidate on that stage in Iowa, including the absent Perry but not the absent Johnson, believe that to one degree or another, they will rule and we will follow. Except for Dr. Paul, who will bring America into the 21st century through respect for Our Ability to Rule Ourselves.
"And I really feel that Ron Paul can’t win this caucus and can’t win this nomination..."
And this religious fanatic can't win either.
Lessee now... Huntsman, Perry, and Romney didn't bother to run. So Santorum finished after Bachmann, Paul, and Pawlenty in a contest where the top three declined. Sounds like a seventh place finish to me.
He's technically correct that he was a few hundred away from third, but neglected to mention that there was a huge gap between second and third. Thestraw poll simply reinforced that Santorum is going nowhere.
Cuckoo for cocoa puffs! Cuckoo for cocoa puffs! a part of a HEALTHY meal..... *eyeroll
Santorum he deceived (stole from) a struggling school district in Pennsylvania into to paying $100,000 for cyber-school tuition for his five children while they were living in a well-off school district in Virginia. If you or I did that we would have been put in jail.
"People can't afford health insurance because they are spending too much on their cable and/or cell phone plans." Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum believes that early childhood education programs are set up so the Federal Government can indoctrinate your children. He's not really clear on what philosophy the government is trying to indoctrinate them with. He says, "They want your children from the womb so they can indoctrinate your children as to what they want them to be."
Apparently Rick is moving his family to Iowa as part of his “Courage to Fight for American Values Tour.” Wonder if he'll steal from an underprivileged school district in Iowa?
Ron Paul schooled Santorum and it hurts.
Yeah Rick...there is always a silver lining in the clouds. Keep dreaming. LOL
He got the most extremist, Taliban-like Christianist wing of rural Iowan Republicans, finishing a distant 4th, and he thinks he is more electable than the three who finished in front of him? He's delusional. They all are. Here's proof: They have all forgotten George W. Bush ever existed. It wasn't Obama who started Iraq and Afghanistan or the economic crisis, or the the first bailout,....and on and on.