In the debates held so far, one theme has emerged: viewers can count on Rick Santorum to swing out with some well-crafted punches at his rivals. For my piece on the homepage today, I interviewed Santorum about how he preps for debates:

Santorum denies that his focus going into the debates is to rip into his rivals — even as he jabs New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.
“I think debates are about showing who you are. It’s not about scoring points. It’s not about coming with one-liners about shovel-ready projects. It’s about authenticity,” he says, referring to Johnson’s crowd-pleaser line in the last debate that “my next-door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration.” …
While it’s Perry who has more recently been the recipient of Santorum’s stinging responses, Santorum denies targeting any one particular candidate. “Give me the opportunity to go out there and talk about Mitt Romney’s health-care program, and I’ll spend an hour going back and forth with Governor Romney. I’ve been tough on Governor Perry because the opportunities have come. There are plenty of differences between Governor Romney and myself, between Congresswoman Bachmann and myself, between even Speaker Gingrich and myself,” he says, adding that there are also “big differences” between him and Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman.

Full piece here.