Rick Santorum, announcing his presidential campaign yesterday:
From day one, we will work to bring back America and put Americans back to work.
American workers deserve a shot at these jobs. Over the last 20 years, we have brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 million mostly unskilled workers. The result over that same period of time? Workers’ wages have flat-lined. Hillary Clinton and big business, they have called for a massive influx of unskilled labor. Business does it because they want to control costs. Hillary does it because she wants votes. Their priorities are profits and power. My priority is you, the American worker.
Notice Santorum blames flatlining wages on legal immigration as well as illegal immigration, and from that it seems reasonable to conclude he wants to see a reduction in the level of legal immigration. Earlier this month, I noted that Scott Walker was echoing the Jeff Sessions argument, and was likely to position himself against other contenders who have emphasized their family ties to legal immigrants — Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and, to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal.
Legal immigration, and whether it needs to be reduced, is going to be a big flashpoint in the GOP presidential debates.
Today’s Morning Jolt also discusses Santorum’s kickoff . . .
What Is Rick Santorum Doing?
One: Why did Rick Santorum agree to kick off his campaign with an interview with . . . Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos, of all people? What, was Keith Olbermann busy? The MSNBC prime time lineup was all booked up?
Two:
Santorum – who wrote “It Takes a Family,” a treatise on the ills of big government, in response to Clinton’s 1996 book, “It Takes a Village” – also touted his book’s success as an indicator of his ability to defeat Clinton.
Critics are saying, “you know what, this breakdown of the family that Rick Santorum talked about 12 years ago is really one of the central issues in rebuilding America again,” he told Stephanopoulos.
Wha? Whaaaa?
That’s the first piece of evidence he cites in his ability to beat Hillary? He wrote a book? It Takes a Village sold 700,000 copies by 2006. Santorum’s book, which came out in 2005, sold 14,000 copies by 2011.
Every time NRO writes about Santorum, you see comments in the section below in the vein of, “why is he wasting everyone’s time by running for president?” Look, there’s no doubt Santorum starts as a giant underdog. But he can argue, justifiably, that four years ago, he was every bit as big an underdog — and he finished with a (really narrow) win in the Iowa caucuses, ten other state wins, 3.9 million primary votes, and 267 delegates, good for a second-place finish.
That’s his strongest evidence that he can beat Hillary; he never worries about the odds and because those who don’t agree with him don’t understand him, they continually underestimate him.
Santorum seems like an extremely personable guy every time I interact with him, but then he makes a decision like granting Stephanopoulos an interview — completely undermining the entirely justified case that the ABC anchor is too much of a dishonest, compromised hack for political journalism — and I’m left feeling as incredulously befuddled as Jackie Chan.