Rick Santorum makes conservative case against Mitt Romney

At Tommy’s Country Ham House, a traditional stop for Republican candidates, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum passionately urged about 150 people tucking into a hearty breakfast not to be seduced into voting for Mitt Romney by party leaders and pundits who have concluded the front-runner is the most electable presidential contender.

“Don’t buy all this baloney that we need a moderate to win,” he said after he laid out his argument that the former Massachusetts governor cannot capture conservative Democrats in key swing states, including his own. “We need someone with strong, core convictions. We can appeal to the voters in the states that we need to win, and that’s not him, that’s us.”

Santorum, who has at times focused his speeches extensively on his family, his faith and his commitment to the nation’s founding principles, instead began and ended with an emotional appeal to South Carolinians to stick to their core values and choose a conservative. It was his sharpest attack on Romney, who is leading in state polls, in recent days. Santorum, who finished just eight votes behind Romney in Iowa and notes that count could change, has a week left before the Jan. 21 primary to persuade South Carolina voters to depose Romney.

“We’re looking for someone who can be the anti-establishment candidate. The establishment is trying to ram down the people of South Carolina and everybody else’s throat Gov. Romney, as if he is the inevitable,” he said. “We need someone who’s bold and courageous, someone who’s willing to go out and say, ‘I’m for these things because they are my convictions,’ not because I put a finger in the air and that’s where the public is today.”

Romney has come under intense assault in television ads and on the campaign trail for his role as co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity firm that Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry say ruined companies for profit and destroyed jobs. Santorum has refused to pile on, but raised the issue to suggest it would dull Romney’s appeal in battleground states.

“I respect Mitt Romney’s career in business,” he said, “but the grandson of a coal miner who grew up in public housing in a steel town in western Pennsylvania and whose policies are oriented toward helping those and whose record is a track record of working in those blue-collar communities has a much better chance of winning those states than an executive from Bain Capital.”

If Republicans nominate Romney, Santorum said, they will neutralize one of the party’s best arguments for defeating President Obama: the need to repeal healthcare reform. “The most important issue we have in this election about fundamental freedom and the role of government in your lives we forfeit. Why would we do that?” he asked, his voice rising to an anguished pitch. “Why would we pick someone who’s had a record that is as a liberal governor of Massachusetts to lead our country at a time we need fundamental change?”

As Santorum made his way through the restaurant, Madelen Spence waylaid him. She said she supports him because she shares his values, but she also shares his high school. The 53-year-old construction contracts manager brought along a yearbook with photos of the future presidential contender captioned “Rooster Santorum.” Santorum, though, did not recall her. He signed her yearbook and moved on efficiently. “Thank you so much. Good to see you,” he said. “Did you see him?” Spence said. “I was lucky to get his signature.”

Santorum, who has drawn some large crowds in upstate South Carolina, began his speech by pointing out the owner and saying, “I think Tommy will tell you, the first time I came here, we were tucked way back in a corner there with about four or five people. The second time we had a few more and a few more, but we were always over there in that partitioned area with a smaller group, and so here we are today with a lot of great folks here.”

Brian Woolf, 69, a retired food retailing consultant, is not satisfied with any of the candidates, though he said he leans toward Texas Rep. Ron Paul. “Overall, I don’t think they’re seriously tackling the severity of what lies ahead,” he said, referring to the economy and the federal budget. “Most of them are dabbling.” He came to check Santorum out. “He seems a lightweight to me,” he said before Santorum spoke. Afterward, he said, “He’s still a lightweight.”

For Brian Hodges, a 39-year-old dentist who brought along his 8-year-old son, Thomas, the key factor in his decision-making is which candidate can beat Obama in November. “You can look at it different ways,” he said. “Is Mitt Romney too moderate to energize the right wing of the party, because we need everybody to pull it off? Or, if you put Santorum up there, will you lose the independents? It’s a tricky game.” He said he would vote for whoever wins the nomination. But after hearing Santorum, Hodges said, “You can put me solidly in Rick’s camp.”