Santorum's Foreign Policy

Feb 9th, 2012

Daniel Larison let's him have it:

"Even though Santorum is far closer in his views to how Obama actually conducts foreign policy than Paul could ever be, he states those views with adversarial partisan contempt, which can be emotionally satisfying for voters opposed to Obama. That said, Santorum uses the usual talking points about Iran, for example, but then runs with them so far that no one outside of a limited circle of hawkish pundits and activists can listen to him without wincing. As Alex Massie said earlier, “he makes George W Bush’s record seem mild and benign,” which is what I’ve been saying for a while now. According to Santorum, Bush’s record was mostly all right, except that he thinks it wasn’t aggressive or bold enough. According to Santorum, Bush had a foreign policy that was too humble, and he aims to correct that." EMPHASIS HIS

The sudden Santorum Surge presents new and terrible risks for the establishment choice on these points. If Romney winds up at the convention without the necessary 1,144 delegates, as Philip Klein discussed yesterday, there is a distinct possibility that Mitt will have to adopt a number of Santorum's politically suicidal positions to appease the base. If the Super Delegates simply hand him the nomination, it will be ugly.