Santorum Blogger Conference Call on Obamacare and Consistency - Granite Grok

Santorum Blogger Conference Call on Obamacare and Consistency

Rick Santorum

This afternoon, Granite Grok was one of a select number of conservative bloggers on a conference call with Senator Rick Santorum, and several of us got to ask questions of the candidate – the transcript is the best approximation that my typing skills could muster, and thanks to Pete, DaTechGuy, for some corrections:

Senator Santorum: It’s the second anniversary of Obamacare and supreme court arguments are underway.
The central issue in this campaign is government control of the economy and the damage it does in terms of jobs lost, energy prices, etc.

There’s a contrast between the candidates, one of whom is a consistent conservative, and one of whom advocated for mandated healthcare, insurance exchanges, employer mandates, etc…

Governor Romney is still defending Romneycare, while claiming that the federal version is wrong, and yet we learned that he also advocated for a federal mandate back in 2009. Now he has shaken the etch a sketch and says he wants to repeal Obamacare. How can he credibly take on Obama under those circumstances, especially as Romneycare is one thing he still defends?

Zilla of the Resistance refers to chronic Lyme disease treatment and how heavy handed regulation is driving out doctors who are looking for innovative treatments.

Santorum: This is typical of government regulated healthcare, which suppresses some of the choices that the market develops. I’m a big fan of HSAs.

Pete Ingemi, DaTechGuy: What about Romney’s Etch-a-Sketch moment?

Santorum: It’s a very telling moment where they showed that they think they can just hit the reset button at any time. For example, in Puerto Rico last week, I was consistent both on mainland and on the island about English being the official language of a state, not its exclusive language, whereas Romney told the Puerto Ricans that he does not believe it is necessary for statehood and official English to go together, after espousing official English for mainland audiences.

Eric fehrnstrom showed that the campaign thinks that they can just change the message at any time.

Grok: You are doing very well in the south, but how do you think you can get more traction in the northern states? (the message of freedom seems to be the most powerful)

Santorum: I’ve kept up a consistent message, even when outspent 20:1
In spite of claims of Romney inevitability we are doing very well in swing states, and our consistent message is beginning to resonate. It is about government control vs freedom, and you’ll notice that Gov. Romney has tried to hijack that message, too, except that his team followed it up with talk of reset the day after his speech.

Lisa grass: MSM and also Fox News seem to be shilling for Romney. How can the blogs help get the message out. EG overcoming the repetition of the out of context quote of you saying you didn’t care about the unemployment number.
Santorum: Consistently the most important issue is freedom. Not that unemployment is unimportant, but that freedom is the most important factor from which the others flow. It’s also very telling that when I asked the embedded network reporters whether freedom had been my consistent message, and not “the unemployment number doesn’t matter”, they had to agree (reluctantly).

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