Not Counting Out Santorum UPDATE: Santorum Surges to 3rd Place!

The one thing I disagree with Zombie about is his contention that any one of the candidates in the current field would lose against Obama. I don’t feel that way, at all. Maybe I’m an eternal optimist, but I think, even with the MSM totally in the tank for him, Obama is going to be limping through 2012 as the slow drip-drip-drip of Fast and Furious, Solyndra, and other scandals fall on his forehead like Chinese water torture.  If he hasn’t been driven half insane by the end of next year, Issa isn’t doing his job.

But I do want a dependable conservative at the helm in 2012. Obviously, that excludes part-time conservatives like Mitt Romney who took a break from conventional conservatism to a  big government statist/socialist form of conservatism when he passed RomneyCare in Massachusetts. Same for Newt with his not- so conventionally conservative support of an  individual health care mandate and his Nancy Pelosi inspired AGW flirtation.  Not to mention his Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac work. Good grief. What next? We find out that he was also an enthusiastic supporter of parts of Porkulus? Oh.

There is still one consistent and principled conservative left in this race: Rick Santorum:

With 45 percent of Iowa Republican voters undecided and a roller-coaster ride about to come to a screeching stop next Tuesday with the GOP caucuses, it may be Rick Santorum’s turn to take the final ascent and surprise the political class by … doing better than expected?

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, has been touted as the sleeper candidate by none other than 2008 Iowa caucuses winner Mike Huckabee. He has relentlessly campaigned in the state, hitting all 99 counties and moving his family out there. He has held 350 campaign events in the past year.

He has received key endorsements from well-known social conservatives in the state, and has had solid performances at each of the debates. And he’s running an old-school style campaign that Iowa voters expect in the retail-style politics of the Hawkeye State.

The man whose at the back of the polling pack — despite recent buzz giving him a late boost — is taking nothing for granted but has nothing to lose.

Santorum has also caught Dick Morris’s attention:SANTORUM COMES ON STRONG! DICK MORRIS TV.

In his Monday post, Morris notes that Santorum’s moving up in Iowa from the back of the pack, like a late finisher in the Iowa Derby.

Red, White and Blue Fund is responsible for the following ad:

SEE ALSO:

Stacy McCain , who thinks he’s in the running for the Ambassadorship of Xanadu, or something if Santorum wins: The Santorum Surge: Mainstream Media Finally Beginning to See Omens in Iowa.

 You can donate to Santorum’s “Iowa Surprise” moneybomb, here.

UPDATE:

Via The Daily Caller:

Rickmentum!

Rick Santorum, who has essentially lived in Iowa for much of the last year, may finally be taking off in the Hawkeye State.

A CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday indicates Santorum is now in third place among likely Iowa caucus-goers, with 16 percent support. That’s an 11-point jump from just one week ago, and a sign that his campaign may have picked up serious momentum with less than a week to go before the caucuses.

This is a very good time to be surging…

Wolf Blitzer interviewed Santorum for CNN:

Oh, look who’s doing the happy dance: SANTORUM SURGE: Finally, the Polls in Iowa Are Catching Up With … Me