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utorak, 31.01.2012.

When Black Meant Republican

When Black Meant Republican

It's easy to forget now, but just a few generations ago African-Americans overwhelmingly identified themselves as Republicans. The story of how the Party of Lincoln lost its black support is long and sad, but understanding what happened is critical as the Party looks to improve its standing in the black community.

In the fall of 1895 Atlanta put on one in a series of "International Expositions" designed to highlight its progress in recovering from the war. Racial tensions had been growing since southerners, at the end of Reconstruction, began instituting Jim Crow laws to curtail black civil rights. Those laws were still under challenge at the time. African-Americans were divided over the merits of direct, legal resistance.

The organizers of the Exposition invited prominent black leader Booker T. Washington to give a keynote address. The position he took in that speech was a calculated gamble. He aimed to improve blacks' social position by aggressively pursuing economic progress while de-emphasizing the battle for civil equality. The approach he outlined, The Atlanta Compromise, became the dominant black political ethos for generations. It was a dizzying failure with consequences we are still working to unwind.

Washington had a rival. W.E.B. DuBois was raised in the north and graduated from Harvard. He pressed to make the fight for political equality the community's highest priority and dismissed Washington's emphasis on economic development and Capitalism. DuBois founded the NAACP and became a leading figure in the northern cities. He was enamored with Marxism and even penned a defense of Josef Stalin on Stalin's death. His influence would increase as Washington's version of compromise began to unravel.

Washington's approach suffered from two crucial flaws. First he thought that institutional southern racism would weaken as the black community began to realize its economic potential. Secondly, he failed to appreciate that capitalism cannot work its magic without government protection of basic property rights. In the face of these tragic misunderstandings, blacks labored away for decades building remarkably successful businesses, professions, and civic institutions, only to watch them crushed over and over again by discriminatory laws and outright violence. There was no hope for economic progress without the most basic civil rights.

A wave of race riots in the teens and '20s were particularly devastating. Only a fraction of the incidents were documented at the time, usually in the form of a brief, euphemistic reference in a local paper to "troubles." But postcards (that's right, postcards), stories, and victim accounts painted a clearer picture. Two of the most notorious riots occurred in Rosewood, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prosperous black communities were in many cases wiped off the map, destroying generations of hard-won gains. When the Depression came, the brief flowering of the separate black communities was effectively dead.

By the '50s, as America was bracing finally to confront its racist legacy, the gritty capitalism Washington had promoted was seen by blacks as a discredited failure at best, an "Uncle Tom" sell-out at worst. As Dr. King's effort's bore fruit and African-Americans began at last to have genuine economic freedom finally open to them, there was little enthusiasm to exploit it. Blacks who had led the successful fight for equal protection focused their continuing efforts less on free enterprise than on government social programs and poverty relief. At the moment when Booker T. Washington's dream of individualism and enterprise held the most potential promise it was eclipsed by a very different vision.

This emphasis created an opening for Democrats which they successfully exploited. The drift of blacks away from the Republican Party was capped by a cynical effort to recruit disgruntled racist Democrats in the south.

What does this mean for Republicans? In spite of the failures of the Great Society era and with little help from Republicans, there is a vibrant, secure black middle class emerging for the first time in America. The growth of black prosperity will be a key to the country's future, but it depends heavily on leaving behind a vision of government dependence with deep, well-justified roots.

We need to recognize this history to understand its impact on our future. Until a generation ago, accumulating capital across generations, so critical to climbing the ladder in America, was a complete fantasy for African-Americans in the south. They could reasonably expect that whatever wasn't spent or hidden would be taken from them. This reality has left the black community with a starting point in terms of wealth, capital, and connections far behind whites or even other minorities.

In addition it would serve Republicans well to understand the difference between traditional black and white understandings of government power. For whites who look to European history as their guide, government is a necessary evil to be treated with great care. Its growth should be managed in order to prevent it becoming an interest to itself; capable of crushing personal liberty and economic freedom.

Blacks' experience with government power is almost a polar opposite of whites'. When central government has been weak, they have suffered. This suffering is not merely relative, but has left them vulnerable to random acts of violence, humiliation, and looting. They have good reason to see government power as protection and to be suspicious of white efforts to weaken it.

A healthy Republican Party, with its crazy-dial turned down from the redline, could have a lot to offer African-Americans. But realizing the potential for black involvement in the Party will require us to better understand and honestly confront our own history. The GOP cannot hope to remain relevant if it devolves into a white religious club. Expanding our appeal is a moral and political imperative that can succeed if we have the will.

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31.01.2012. u 09:09 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

ponedjeljak, 30.01.2012.

GOP voters start casting ballots in Hillsborough

GOP voters start casting ballots in Hillsborough

By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer In Print: Tuesday, January 17, 2012

TAMPA - Steve had his mind made up, so he decided not to wait. On Monday, he was one of more than 1,200 Hillsborough County voters to go to the polls to get a head start in the Republican presidential primary.

"I wanted to get it over with," said , 64, who works in real estate and voted in northern Hillsborough. "He may not be as conservative as the others, but I went for (Mitt) Romney because he's electable."

Early voting has begun in Hillsborough for the Jan. 31 Republican presidential preference primary, ahead of most of the rest of the state.

State legislators last year made controversial changes to election laws, including trimming the early voting period.

But the old laws still stand in Hillsborough and four other counties with a history of racial discrimination - Monroe, Collier, Hardee and Hendry - until the federal government approves the changes.

Early voting in other Tampa Bay counties will begin Saturday.

Monday's turnout was about a third of that of the first day of early voting in 2008. But that year, both political parties had presidential preference primaries.

At Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library north of Carrollwood, where Romney and Ron Paul signs lined the parking lot, more than 150 people had cast votes by late afternoon.

Kathleen Paynter and her husband, Randy, showed up so that their 10-year-old son, Aaron, who was out of school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, could watch.

Kathleen voted for Newt Gingrich, and Randy voted for Rick Santorum.

"I feel like (Gingrich) is the one who has a chance to come up against (President Barack) Obama," said Kathleen, 51. "He can out-debate him."

Randy said he had considered Gingrich, too, but instead went with his instinct.

Santorum "is honest. He's the most conservative," said Randy, 46. "If people listen to their hearts, I think he has a chance."

Aaron piped up that he likes Romney. "Only because he's in the lead," his father teased.

It wasn't quite as lively at the C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library, which is in a mostly Democratic neighborhood off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. No Republican campaign had even bothered with signs.

By about 4:30 p.m., only four people had shown up to vote, said Linda Wright, a clerk with the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Office. She sent six poll workers home early.

"It's a holiday, so that's where people's minds are" she said. "We expect tomorrow there'll be a big change."

She looked out the door. Up the sidewalk came voter No. 5.

"Well, here comes Mr. Posey," she said.

Marvin Posey, the 80-year-old owner of Posey Power Batteries, said he voted for Romney.

"He's a good, religious man," said Posey. "He may be a different religion, but that's okay." (Romney is a Mormon.)

Posey said he thinks Romney is someone who's "completely different" and will shake things up in Washington.

Does he think Romney can win? He wasn't sure. He was surprised that a few more Republicans hadn't shown up at his polling site.

"Five all day long?" he asked. "That worries me bad."

Early voting polls

Early voting is from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. at locations inside libraries. Other locations are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Any registered Republican in Hillsborough can vote at any of the locations.

Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E Kennedy Blvd., 26th floor.

Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center, 2514 N Falkenburg Road.

Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, 1906 Bloomingdale Ave.

C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library, 2607 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library, 3910 S Manhattan Ave.

Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library, 2902 W Bearss Ave.

New Tampa Regional Library, 10001 Cross Creek Blvd.

North Tampa Branch Library, 8916 N Boulevard.

Plant City City Hall, 302 W Reynolds St.

Riverview Branch Library, 10509 Riverview Drive.

SouthShore Regional Library, 15816 Beth Shields Way.

Temple Terrace Public Library, 202 Bullard Parkway.

Town 'N Country Regional Public Library, 7606 Paula Drive, Suite 120.

Upper Tampa Bay Regional Public Library, 11211 Countryway Blvd.

West Tampa Branch Library, 2313 W Union St.

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30.01.2012. u 09:04 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

utorak, 24.01.2012.

Conservative blogs take on Newsweek cover

Conservative blogs take on Newsweek cover

By MJ LEE | 1/16/12 4:01 PM EST Updated: 1/16/12 8:18 PM EST

The lastest edition of Newsweek features the face of a pensive President Barack Obama along with the provocative headline: "Why are Obama's critics so dumb?" - and that's hit a little too close to home for conservative bloggers.

Joel Pollak, editor in chief of Breitbart.com, turned the cover's question around on Andrew Sullivan, who penned the magazine's cover story, in a blog post called, "Why is Andrew Sullivan so dumb?"

"You'd have to be stupid, fanatical and dishonest to argue - as Trig Truther Sullivan does - that Barack Obama's failures are part of an ingenious ‘long game' that is destined to succeed," Pollak wrote. "If this is the best Obama's supporters can do, Obama's only hope for reelection is the weak Republican field."

Similarly, Power Line's John Hinderaker vented in a blog post titled, "We must be really, really stupid!"

"Well, sure. We who are unhappy that unemployment has increased on Obama's watch, that over-regulation has stymied economic growth, that our children now owe a $15 trillion debt that we can't pay - hey, we're just dumb!" he blasted. "We obviously aren't smart enough to understand how devastating our economy, unemploying millions of Americans and burdening our children with trillions of dollars in debt is really a great idea."

Sullivan, a self-described "unabashed supporter of Obama from early 2007 on," writes in the cover story that attacks against the president are not only out of bounds but "simply - empirically - wrong."

"Given the enormity of what he inherited, and given what he explicitly promised, it remains simply a fact that Obama has delivered in a way that the unhinged right and purist left have yet to understand or absorb," Sullivan wrote. "Their short-term outbursts have missed Obama's long game - and why his reelection remains, in my view, as essential for this country's future as his original election in 2008."

The story was rated by Townhall's Managing Editor Kevin Glass as "a doozy about how conservatives are delusional and the left-wing base is just dumber than the president," and he added that the Newsweek writer has bought into what he called "The Obama Delusion."

"The president's critics, on both sides, have and will continue to make sound critiques. And Andrew Sullivan and The Daily Beast are just trolling us," Glass wrote.

"Is there anything the mainstream media won't do to get Obama reelected?" Noel Sheppard of NewsBusters wanted to know.

The Weekly Standard's Mark Hemingway ripped Newsweek for falling deeper into "self-parody": "If in recent years it seems as if Newsweek has been descending into self-parody, it's still hard to imagine that this is real."

And over at Red State, the magazine's cover inspired blogger Caleb Howe to exercise some creative liberties by declaring a "Photoshop contest" to make a fake Newsweek cover.

"I'm assuming the thought process, such as it is, was ‘controversial sells magazines,'" he wrote. "So in that light, I have a suggestion for Newsweek's next cover, one that will really stir things up."

One of Howe's several mock Newsweek covers features a sad-faced puppy and the words: "Puppies: Why our editors torture them."

Sullivan defended the president's record Monday evening, saying, "Obama has governed as he said he would, as a sensible, pragmatic centrist." He explained that a frustration about lies people were telling about the president's record had inspired him to write the cover story.

"I just got frustrated hearing all these people tell untruths about the record," Sullivan said on MSNBC. "The record is that he has done something perfectly sensible - he's fulfilled the promises that he made to turn this country round slowly."

He urged Obama's critics to have more "patience" when scrutinizing the president's accomplishments, and suggested that critics approach their negotiations with the president without a "fantasy about who this guy is."

"He's not a big old lefty," he added. "I mean, ask the left. He's a compromiser in the middle and I think what he's done is set out very carefully where he wants to go."

Mark Miller, assistant managing editor of Newsweek, insisted earlier on Monday that Sullivan's piece articulates criticism of the president from "both the left and the right."

"I think Andrew makes the case fairly well that the way that he's been caricatured by the right and the way that the left is disappointed with him doesn't actually serve him well," Miller said on MSNBC.

He noted that one of Obama's biggest problems is that he "isn't out there ... grandstanding and talking about his accomplishments in a way that may be necessary to break through the noise."

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24.01.2012. u 05:31 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

ponedjeljak, 23.01.2012.

Conservatives feud over Santorum endorsement

Conservatives feud over Santorum endorsement

In an evolving power struggle, religious conservatives are feuding about whether a weekend meeting in Texas yielded a consensus that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is the best bet to stop Mitt Romney's drive for the Republican presidential nomination.

A leading evangelical and former aide to President George H.W. Bush said he agreed with suspicions voiced by others at the meeting of evangelical and conservative Catholic activists that organizers "manipulated" the gathering and may even have stuffed the ballot to produce an endorsement of Mr. Santorum over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Mr. Santorum, who nearly upset Mr. Romney in the Iowa caucuses, won the first ballot ahead of Mr. Gingrich in Saturday's Texas meeting but the margin was too slim for organizers to claim a consensus. It was not until the third ballot, taken after many people had left to catch flights back home, that Mr. Santorum won more than 70 percent of those still in attendance and claimed the endorsement.

Former White House evangelical-outreach official Doug Wead, who represented GOP presidential hopeful Texas Rep. Ron Paul at the event, said it appeared the outcome obviously was determined in advance by the choice of the people invited.

"By the time the weekend was over, it was clear that this had been definitely planned all along as a Rick Santorum event," Mr. Wead said, noting that he was the only supporter of Mr. Paul to receive an invitation.

"The organizer was for Santorum, the person who created the invitation list was for Santorum, the emcee was for Santorum, and after making sure all of the Gingrich people had vented early, the last three speakers before the vote were for Santorum," he said.

Added a Gingrich supporter, a prominent social conservative who asked not to be named, "My view is that the vote was manipulated."

Yet another evangelical political organizer who attended the meeting said he witnessed a possible incident of ballot-box stuffing. In at least one instance, the witness said, a participant was seen writing Mr. Santorum´s name on four separate ballots and putting all four in the box.

The closed-door gathering of about 150 activists at the Benham, Texas, ranch of Nancy and Paul Pressler was being closely watched as perhaps a last chance for social and religious conservatives in the party to change the direction of the nomination fight by uniting around a single alternative to Mr. Romney, whom many distrust.

The Wead allegations are part of an acrimonious power struggle - some involved call it a "civil war" - on the religious right about whether to back Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum, Mr. Paul or Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Just what happened in the meeting and whether the result was manipulated have sparked a stream of emails back and forth among leading conservatives after the meeting broke up.

Supporters of Mr. Santorum defended both the process and the result of the Texas vote.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told The Washington Times that he thinks it "is unfortunate that there were a few individuals that have chosen to malign the process and their conservative colleagues. This is not reflective of the tone of tenor of the meeting in Houston."

Longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie denied charges of collusion by meeting organizers.

"After two ballots, the group had narrowed the field to Santorum and Gingrich, with Santorum leading," he said. "On the third and final ballot, a number of Gingrich supporters, in a principled effort to achieve unity, switched their support to Santorum. This resulted in a strong 75 percent consensus of the group in support of Sen. Santorum's candidacy."

Let Freedom Ring founder Colin Hanna, a pro-Santorum evangelical, told The Washington Times that he and his wife may have been the unwitting inspiration for the charges of ballot stuffing.

He said he and his wife left for home after the first ballot and had asked another couple in attendance to cast proxy votes for Mr. Santorum in the second round of voting.

Mr. Perkins strongly defended the Texas meeting as "a remarkable gathering of conservatives leaders."

"There was no absence of passion in the advocating for perspectives or preferences, but it was marked with tremendous camaraderie and cordiality," he said. "While not everyone agrees with the outcome, they do agree with how the group arrived at that outcome."

But Mr. Wead, who said meeting participants were warned not to discuss the gathering in the media, was still upset and said the entire exercise was misguided.

"The idea of evangelicals meeting this late to select a candidate always struck me as incredibly naive, almost stupid. It is way too late for that," he said.

Mr. Wead added that the religious conservatives involved are his "heroes."

"It hurts to see them so divided," he said.

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srijeda, 18.01.2012.

South Carolina GOP chair at center of Myrtle Beach presidential debate

South Carolina GOP chair at center of Myrtle Beach presidential debate

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Hordes of politicos circle the upstairs bar inside the Sheraton on Sunday evening, constantly refreshing Twitter feeds, sipping libations and searching for the juiciest tidbit in a topsy-turvy GOP race.

It is 24 hours before Myrtle Beach's GOP debate, and the stage, emblazoned with Fox News logos and blocked by barriers, is set for action. But now former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is out, and one podium must drop from the dais. The seating chart hanging inside the GOP's crowded command center also must be reallocated; Huntsman no longer needs 30 chairs in the debate audience.

The GOP staff - huddled with Mellow Mushroom pizza inside the chaotic, crowded center just yards from the bar - quickly erupts in buzzed phones and frenetic action.

Chad Connelly, the affable S.C. GOP chairman from Prosperity, barely notices. He's holding court in a far booth, playfully cajoling a national reporter and far removed from the tweets. He's been the face of the state's Republican Party in the months leading up to the debate. In many ways, his background of business success and even personal tragedy, prepared him for his moment in the national spotlight.

A few minutes later, the civil engineer turned Amway entrepreneur turned motivational speaker turned state GOP chair strides downstairs into January's brisk beach winds. Behind the backdrop of a gigantic Mount Rushmore-esque sandcastle that still includes Huntsman's caricature, Connelly waits for more than 10 minutes with television wires dangling from his pockets so he can chat with Geraldo Rivera at 10:30.

The interview will be Connelly's 25th national appearance in recent weeks, top aide Matt Moore says. Finally, after a 10-minute lull, Connelly is cued with a question: what does Huntsman dropping from the race mean for the party?

Connelly demurs but adds the Myrtle Beach may be the "most decisive and pivotal debate in the entire season." One other question is quickly dispatched, and the interview is over. He is composed and stays on message. Nervous aides breathe a sigh of relief. Connelly speaks for all of 90 seconds.

The aides - Moore and state political director Alex Stroman - are soon bombarded with text messages and emails. One friend of Connelly's writes to say, "Geraldo is obviously a big fan." Connelly beams and tells Moore and Stroman that he loves them.

"I've never doubted that he's meant it," Stroman said.

It is now almost midnight, and there are logistics to discuss inside the debate hall, which Connelly inspects for a final time. Gov. Nikki Haley's staff needs 20 seats together. Ex-Gov. Mark Sanford needs a ride from the airport, and Sanford has an extra seat for a guest. The question resonates with laughter inside the hall: Who might it be?

Connelly is 20 yards away from his staff, wandering across the hall, standing alone and grinning. The grin seems permanently afixed to his face, but it rarely appears forced. As Connelly walks through the hall, he seems awestruck.

The hotel's roar heightens as time passes. Connelly doesn't return to the bar; instead, he retreats to his presidential penthouse on the twelfth floor. Moore says his suite is the nicest in the hotel.

Connelly must sleep. Interview 26 - a live spot with CNN - comes at 7 a.m. And then there's the debate, the evening Connelly has planned for months.

Connelly's bio looks simple and expected for a state GOP chairman: Baptist Sunday school teacher, little league coach, NRA member and motivational speaker. He has a civil engineering degree from Clemson, where his friends will tell you he spent lots of time not studying. He is Dana Connelly's husband and a father of four.

But there's this: In 2006, Chad Connelly and his two young sons came home from church to see his wife of almost 19 years in a pool of blood on the floor.

She had skipped church - just as she had two weeks before - presumably to cook lunch. But the depression that gripped her had taken its final hold in a suicide that devastated his family.

"The boys saw something they never should have seen. I tried to hold them back as much as I could," Connelly says, suppressing tears. "It was a gut kick, an absolutely harsh, brutal scene that feels like TV but you're living it."

For months, he'd grieve in anger. How could she do this? Connelly and Michelle had started a successful Amway business and traveled across the world for business engagements. They had met at Clemson and shared dreams. Their family was young; their boys were happy.

Connelly's motivational speaking business was booming. He had recently published a book.

Now, he would find in a whirlwind of shock, pin-wheeling from phases of depression into resiliency back into depression. Connelly admittedly mellowed some, and the children kept him from falling further into pain: they needed a father, and they needed normalcy.

Haley, after receiving a raucous standing ovation, urges the party to eventually rally behind a candidate that can expel President Barack Obama from the White House.

After about nine months, friends introduced him to a lady named Dana. Her husband had committed suicide, too, leaving her a single parent with two young daughters.

They'd chat on the phone and occasionally see each other. There was a deep connection; no one else understood the deep betrayal and feelings of inadequacy. In July 2007, they were married.

"Michelle believed I'd move on, God ordains us to move on and my boys deserved it," Connelly said, praising the virtues of family.

Moore, his executive director, later adds that his own father committed suicide in May 2009. Connelly and Moore bonded over coffee and forged a deep friendship.

"Chad is the closest thing to a father I have on this Earth, and I'd do anything for him," Moore said.

An aide prods him to move along to the next event. There are speeches to give and donors to schmooze. The debate is 12 hours away.

Connelly bursts into the statewide executive meeting he is expected to lead just two minutes before it begins. In typical fashion, he hugs women and shakes hands of men - sometimes hugging them as well.

"This is the day the Lord has made," he bellows to a full room. "This is the day we've all been waiting for."

The meeting is on schedule until Haley bounds in the door; she wasn't expected but happened to walk by. Haley, after receiving a raucous standing ovation, urges the party to eventually rally behind a candidate that can expel President Barack Obama from the White House.

It's soon time to face the lingering issue in the room: Stephen Colbert. Connelly faced negative headlines after Stephen Colbert almost hijacked the primary, offering the party $400,000 for exclusive naming rights and a ballot referendum: are corporations people or are only people people?

Connelly owes the top brass an explanation. He admits the deal "made him nervous as a cat." But he wanted to reach the "cool and hip" crowd of the younger generation and said the party could use the money. Had the state GOP lost a lawsuit to the county parties in a dispute over who should pay for the state's primary, Connelly would have faced a looming debt.

"I'd wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat thinking I'm on the front page of USA Today as goat of the year," Connelly said.

He adds: "I did interviews with people from places I can't pronounce."

The party's top brass - assembled from 27 counties across the state - laughs off the Colbert criticism and bashes the media in incremental bursts. But all agree: it is best Colbert's name is not on the primary.

Connelly will handle a few more other official duties: his formal chairman's luncheon and several donor greetings. He walks a prominent group of VIPs through the debate hall and shows them their prime seats. In turn, they stage pictures and glow in the spotlight.

The guests are quickly ushered along. At 3 p.m., the building is wiped free of people and swept for bombs. Connelly retreats for respite - a brief chat with his wife and children and a nap. He's been up since 5 a.m.

Connelly emerges again a little before 6, galloping off the elevator into a pre-debate reception. The party is typical political fare: bigwig donors, fancy plates of gourmet food and gossipy conversations and debate predictions. Connelly has schmoozed plenty before, and he's especially good at it.

In separate interviews, several Columbia politicos praise Connelly for his outgoing demeanor and gregarious style. Likewise, several local officials say they've been duly impressed with his ability to handle contentious issues. All interviewed say he's maintained a higher profile than his predecessor, though they're quick to say it's too early to judge his leadership.

But on Monday night, amid clanking glasses and the glow of national cameras, everyone seems to grin.

Connelly's smile - as it has been for days here - may be the widest of them all.

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18.01.2012. u 05:24 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

He's running for president but sometimes it sounds like Santorum is working toward tenure

He's running for president but sometimes it sounds like Santorum is working toward tenure

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - Rick Santorum is running for president but his campaign speeches sometimes sound like he's working toward tenure.

The Republican quotes Irish statesmen and French historians, traces word origins and explains Islam to the Christian conservatives who have great sway in South Carolina's Saturday GOP primary. He recommends books, cites academic studies and doesn't shy from footnoting his own unscripted remarks.

At times, Santorum's events more closely resemble a somber college lecture than a raucous political rally - informative, if not always inspirational.

"After I left the United States Senate, I wrote and lectured around the country about Iran," the former Pennsylvania senator said to one audience here last week. So, he argues, vote for him "if you're looking for someone who has some understanding and knowledge and has had success in trying to shape Iran policy, someone who has that experience to be commander in chief and has the ability to go out and look at and lecture on that country."

At another point, Santorum explained how the American and French constitutions differ.

"There were no God-given rights (in France) because there was no God," he said. "What happened? Tyranny and the guillotine."

Comments like those are standard Santorum fare. In the stump speech he gives several times a day, Santorum includes red-meat conservative rhetoric but also sprinkles in academic discourse and Senate-speak. And there's another frequent public-speaking device: He throws queries back at his questioners - and then provides his own answers.

"How many 62-year-olds do you know who can't work?" he asks when talking about early benefits some Americans draw for Social Security. "Do you know how many people take benefits early?" And when voters venture a guess - he jumps in to correct them, eing: "Seventy percent."

A long-time footnote in the race, Santorum is relishing his new relevance ahead of Saturday's first-in-the-South primary. His surprise finish in Iowa elevated him for the moment as the chief conservative rival to front-runner Mitt Romney but he was shellacked just a week later in the New Hampshire primary.

Now he's looking to rebound in South Carolina, more friendly territory for the social-conservative crusader.

Campaigning in South Carolina over the past week, Santorum has faced audiences eager to pepper him with questions about cultural issues, like what he would do to make it easier for parents to homeschool their children and how he would work to end abortion rights. An attorney who has an MBA, Santorum exudes confidence in his knowledge but seldom appears arrogant. His lectures seem designed to persuade his audiences, not convince them of his brilliance.

Some like what they hear.

"Rick Santorum's grasp of the issues is deep," said Alan Lord, a 45-year-old engineer from Lexington who supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee four years ago and visited with Santorum in West Columbia last week at an overflowing town hall-style meeting. "I watch him and he clearly knows what he's talking about."

At event after event, Santorum quotes journal studies and his faith in equal measure.

"If it wasn't for immigration, America would be declining in population," he said in Charleston. Then he directed his packed auditorium toward a study of population changes in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Often, Santorum commends one of his recent reads, David Hackett Fischer's "Washington Crossing," to his audiences. He mentions Edmund Burke, the 18th Century historian. He quotes Alexis de Tocqueville's study of American democracy.

And he's been known to mention the origins of basic words.

"We cannot have a strong economy unless the family is a strong foundational unit of our society," he says frequently, as he did this week in Columbia. "The term economy comes from the Greek word, 'home.'"

He also challenges the contemporary interpretation of the Declaration of Independence's call for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

"Happiness at the time of our founding was not defined the way it is today," he told an audience in Beaufort. "The dictionary definition of 'happiness' at the time of our founders was 'to do the morally right thing.'"

And when a voter in Charleston urged Republicans to impeach President Barack Obama, Santorum said: "I don't think you can impeach a president because you disagree with his public policy ... I hesitate to get involved in political impeachments. That happened once under Andrew Johnson and that didn't work out so well."

Thus began an impromptu mini-lecture on the 1868 trial.

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