Can former US senator Rick Santorum, who is perceived as a strong conservative, win the White House in November if he becomes the GOP nominee?

Yes, certainly, he is electable.

To get a perspective, look at the 2008 election. We had a Republican president in George W. Bush with a wildly unpopular Iraq war and then, just as the election loomed, an economic collapse. We had a lousy GOP candidate in John McCain who seemed at times to not even want to be president.

We saw Obama taking many conservative positions in order to appeal to voters (he said he favored the 2^nd Amendment, nuclear power, opposed homosexual marriage etc.). We had Obama promising ‘hope and change’ to a frightened populace. Obama played ‘the race card’ all the way (i.e., elect The First Black President). There was total 120% media sycophancy for Obama.

Yet Obama only won a modest victory of 6 points over a completely hapless McCain.

So even with everything going in his direction, Obama still was not a very popular candidate; don’t let the media rewrite history. And today Obama’s popularity is much lower than it was back then. Don’t let the growing media spin fool you. It is all geared toward election day and toward dispiriting Republicans.

And since Obama was elected, his weaknesses have shown bright. We have seen big Republican wins in almost every single election from the New Jersey governorship, to NY-9 – the New York City congressional district that voted Republican for the first time since 1922 – to the November 2010 Republican landslide with more than 680 federal and state electoral seats, including governorships, going from Democrat to Republican. Even Obama’s own former US Senate seat went to Republican Mark Kirk.

So don’t think that Obama is a political juggernaut. He is not. Trends are running strongly against him in almost every demographic.

Meanwhile his media cronies continue to tout ‘the power of the incumbency’ when actually that power only applies to incumbents who are popular. Obama is not.

Can Santorum beat Obama?

Again, yes. But remember how the Democrats operate. This will be the dirtiest campaign in history, with 150% media compliance. Democrats are desperate to keep Obama in power but they are deathly afraid of his weaknesses. Don’t be fooled by the media template that Obama and the Democrats are all confident.

Americans will see through all this media bias, however, because these are trying times. This election is different. Voters are going to think very clearly about what direction the nation is going in. And right now they are very negative about Obama.

And don’t forget that the ‘occupy’ movement is going to be another albatross around Obama’s neck. Because this movement is going to explode in the Autumn of 2012 with chaos and violence. And as it is tied to Obama, it is going to alienate millions of voters.

So while Santorum certainly faces major challenges like any candidate for the presidency does, let’s consider the positive aspects of a potential Santorum candidacy:

*Santorum is not Barack Obama. He does not have the terrible economy to take responsibility for. This is the Number One issue. Don’t let the Democrats and media mislead you about contraception and other social issues.

*Santorum can rightly tie Obama to crooked corporations (non-tax-paying General Electric, Solyndra etc.), crooked Wall Street (Democrats Corzine, Madoff etc.) and crooked government (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac).

*Santorum can be seen as a humble “man of the people” with his big family and his honest ways and his modest sweaters. Democrats always like to say that that is who they are. Nonsense. They are the party of the super-rich elite. Santorum is the real deal. He indeed is “one of us”.

*Santorum will energize conservative voters, including Christians. Millions of these voters are angry at the GOP Establishment and could stay home if Romney is the nominee. Even some conservative Democrats – so-called Reagan Democrats – will vote for Santorum.

*Liberals are calling Santorum “too conservative” and “too Christian”. This is because they are afraid that he will take on Obama bluntly and confront the nation’s moral decline foursquare. Every word that Santorum says will be heard ‘round the nation in a presidential campaign. The media cannot censor him. Thus well-chosen words will echo widely.

*Santorum does not have the ‘occupiers’ and Maxine Waters and the media smear machine doing his dirty work. And he can expose them all by going “over the heads” of the media and appealing directly to voters as Ronald Reagan did.

*Americans are very nervous about the future. Because there is not only a jobs crisis, but an energy crisis, a housing crisis and a debt crisis. Santorum is much more likely to hit Obama hard on every issue. Romney has too often seemed like a “nice guy” Republican who won’t go after Obama. This is how McCain blew it.

*As a conservative Santorum won two terms (1994-2006) in the US Senate from Pennsylvania, which is considered a ‘swing state’. His critics explain that he lost re-election by a wide margin in 2006. But that was when the Republican party was badly beaten nationally in response to the unpopularity of the Iraq war. And Santorum was beaten by a pro-life Democrat.

To see senator Santorum’s entire voting record  from issues2000.org, please go here

Santorum often seems like a good conservative, and for the most part he is. But certainly not always. In fact some conservatives call him a big-government Republican. Here is just a selection of his political positions from issues2000.org:

He wants a 0% corporate tax rate, not the current 35%. Voted to limit the power of trial lawyers. Rated only 27% by the National Education Association (teacher unions). Voted for new oil drilling in ANWR in Alaska. Has voted to end solar energy subsidies. Has a 100% free-trade voting record according to the Cato Center. Opposed McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. Wishes to repeal ObamaCare. Rated 0 by radical peace group SANE.

He supports the reinstatement of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell legislation on homosexuals in the military. He supported Bush’s Medicare prescription program. He is rated only 25% by the American Civil Liberties Union. He voted against adding sexual orientation to the definition of hate crimes.

He wants to make English the official language of the United States. He wants illegal aliens barred from Social Security. Rated 0 by the AFL-CIO for an anti-union voting record. Says public-employee unions have bankrupted states.

He supported raising the Social Security retirement age. Wants to eliminate the “death tax”. Wants capital gains tax reduced. Opposes internet sales tax. Wants to stop Iran from getting nukes.

Santorum promotes marriage and the nuclear family. Wants to block-grant Medicaid, welfare and food stamps to states. Says Great Society program of the 1960s fractured families. Santorum is strongly Christian. He has said that the poor should get school choice vouchers.

So if you look at Santorum’s record, it would have wide appeal because
Americans still are generally much more conservative than liberal.

And if he can cut through the media caricature of him over his Christian faith, he could win the White House. Don’t be swayed by the radical media template. Because the same people said that Ronald Reagan was unelectable just a few months before Reagan trounced Jimmy Carter.

Rick Santorum, however, is not Ronald Reagan. But then again, nobody knew who Ronald Reagan really was until after he got elected.

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