Friday, February 10, 2012

Santorum Adjusting to Star Treatment on Trail

At New York Times:

PLANO, Tex. — A crowd of well-wishers and autograph-seekers surrounded Rick Santorum at an event hall here this week. The place was packed; dozens of men, women and children stranded outside stood in the cold just to catch a glimpse of him.

People approached him with tears in their eyes. They gave him cowboy hats, personal notes, quilts sewn for his seriously ill 3-year-old daughter and envelopes with checks inside. His campaign had raised $1 million online in 24 hours. Earlier, at a nearby hotel, he had to apologize to those hoping to have their pictures taken with him, explaining that he had a television show to get ready for.

But as Mr. Santorum made his way through the crowd, he was asked if anything felt new. “No, no,” he said. “The same old, the same old.”

Of course, that was hard to believe: This was the Santorum campaign, post-trifecta.

On Tuesday night, Mr. Santorum stunned the political world by winning the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri, reviving his flagging candidacy. On Wednesday and Thursday, at a series of campaign stops in the suburbs north of Dallas and in Oklahoma, Mr. Santorum took advantage of a burst of momentum and campaign donations that have followed his three victories. Though overtaking Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, is still a formidable challenge, Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has become as much of a political rock star as he has ever been in his life.
Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Donors Turn to Santorum 'Super PAC' After Upset Victories."

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