NEWTON, Iowa — One of the most unexpectedly pleasant dividends of this trip was getting to meet Rick Santorum and his family. It was unexpected because I hadn’t really planned to cover the Santorum campaign, but just happened to notice that he had an event Aug. 6 (a day when I otherwise had nothing to cover) and decided to try to squeeze it into my schedule. Partly, this was a favor for Lisa Graas, who is a huge Santorum fan. And when I went to the event, featuring a candidate whom nobody gave a chance, my instinctive sympathy for long shots and underdogs kicked in.
After the votes were counted Saturday Santorum (whose fundraising amounted to about $600,000) got more straw-poll votes (1,657) than Mitt Romney (567), Newt Gingrich (385) and Jona Huntsman (67) combined. So it’s a pretty good bet that the people who contributed that first $600,000 will be willing to pony up a few thousand more — and thus his low-budget campaign will keep going.
Here’s the video of my brief interview with Santorum shortly after the results were announced:
Can Rick Santorum possibly win the GOP nomination? No political prognosticator would give you odds on that. But crazier things have happened and, in fact, who ever imagined I’d ever make it to Iowa to cover the debate and straw poll?
As far as getting back home . . . Hey, you remember I bought a one-way ticket here, right? So now I’ve got to figure out how I’ll get home, and it’s time for those five famous words: Hit the freaking tip jar.
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