Rick Santorum succeeds in minimizing Ron Paul

By Jennifer Rubin

Ryan Lizza wrote a column a few days ago citing the five things liberal journalists are rooting for in the Republican presidential primary, including a Ron Paul win in Iowa, a Jon Huntsman win in New Hampshire and a brokered convention. None of those things are happening, telling you how isolated from reality these political “gurus” are.

There is a special irony that the man who put Ron Paul in his place and thereby did his party a great service is none other than Rick Santorum, who is the Republican most despised by the left. His views on abortion and gay marriage, not to mention his robust foreign policy, are an anathema to the left. There is no candidate who has been more mocked or ridiculed than he.

But let’s consider what he accomplished in relegating Ron Paul to third place. He spared Iowa and the party more generally from the ignominy of rewarding the man responsible for racist newsletters and bizarre views on Iran and 9/11. In Lizza’s dream world, Ron Paul is the “winner,” no matter what the results. In fact, a pro-freedom, hawkish national security outlook triumphed. It was a central part of Santorum’s message, and it was a view embraced by Mitt Romney as well.

The GOP nominee, whether Romney or Santorum, will be staunchly in favor of a military option, if needed, to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He or she will be exceptionally critical of Obama’s foreign policy, especially his treatment of Israel. He or she will be a robust defender of religious freedom around the world and opposed to the dictator-coddling stance that the left favors. He or she will be opposed to slashing defense.

Santorum also deserves credit for insisting that foreign policy be a key part of the campaign. He could have played it down, but in his stump speech and interviews he persisted in calling attention to the dangers the United States faces and in calling for ample defense spending. He disproved the notion that you have to talk purely about what the polls tell us voters want to hear.

In sum, the isolationist left should be glum. Santorum dashed their hopes that the kooky, isolationist segment of the electorate would get a real foothold. In doing so, Santorum showed he is in touch with the actual Republican Party, not the crackpot party that exists in the dreams of liberal reporters.

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