Dan Judy’s comments to ABC News about Rick Santorum and the Republican presidential primary campaign:
“Whenever people can refer to something you gave as the Satan speech, that’s not a good sign,” said Dan Judy, a Republican strategist and pollster.
The speech is likely to be a topic at tonight’s debate, where Santorum and Romney will be the stars. Newt Gingrich, who enjoyed victory in South Carolina but has since flat-lined, has said that he likes Santorum and is unlikely to attack him. Ron Paul, meanwhile, will probably stick to his alliance with Romney and try to get under Santorum’s skin, which he can do.
Romney will have the chance to turn to Santorum and ask him about plenty of seemingly controversial comments he’s made, such as his statement that birth control is “harmful” to women and society, or that women in the front lines “could be in a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission, because of other types of emotions that are involved.”
Those comments haven’t been enough to drag down Santorum’s support among women. In the Quinnipiac poll, Santorum tops Romney 34 percent to 28 percent among women (and 35 percent to 24 percent among men).
“The controversy about Santorum’s remarks about women in combat and birth control doesn’t seem to be hurting him among Republican women, at least not much,” Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in the survey’s release.
Rehashing those statements on a national stage in a key debate could carry more weight, especially if Santorum stumbles in defending them.
“A lot of Santorum’s positions and statements are outside the mainstream, even among conservatives,” Judy said. “He has shown a tendency to get riled up and to kind of whine and look angry. I’ve always felt like if he’s not careful, he has a tendency to come across as the kid in the class who, just as the bell’s about to ring, reminds the teacher that he forgot to give homework.”
For the full article, please click here.
