A quick search of Google news for Santorum will show he did not have a very good week promoting SS reform. Local newspapers paint a pretty grim picture. One even predicts that his support of Bush's program is going to hurt his chances for re-election. I guess he doesn't censor his audience as well as Bush does.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_3santorum.4286046feb26,0,4663449.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum almost made it Friday morning. After a week of heckles and jeers at colleges across Pennsylvania, Santorum found a more polite and receptive crowd at Lafayette College in Easton.
It let him finish -- without interruption -- a 60-minute presentation on President Bush's plan to allow younger workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in stocks and bonds.
After a final question, Santorum said the retirement system has worked well, ''but my point is I want the same security for this generation.''
''No!'' Randy Kim, 18, of Lansdowne, Delaware County, shouted at the two-term senator. ''You want security for the financiers.''
Kim was quickly escorted from the event, but not before 72-year-old Billy Givens, a frequent government and establishment critic from Easton, tried to intervene.
''We almost made it through,'' said Santorum, R- Pa., who chuckled as the guards walked Kim out as the audience clapped.
Givens was not arrested for trying to wrestle Kim free, but Kim, who is not a Lafayette student, was and may be cited for disorderly conduct, said Hugh Harris, Lafayette's public safety director.
Lafayette was the second-to-last of the 10 colleges Santorum planned to visit to tout the benefits of private retirement accounts, a hallmark of Bush's second-term domestic agenda but a lightning rod for Santorum and other Republicans.
As Santorum was giving his presentation in Easton, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other members of the Senate Democratic leadership team were in Philadelphia. They see the president's plan as a way to unseat Santorum in 2006.
Earlier this week, Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, was taunted and ridiculed at places such as Drexel University in Philadelphia and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
Audiences voiced skepticism and concerns about Bush's plan, the Iraq war, gay rights and other contentious topics.
The Easton visit was more subdued, although to get inside Colton Chapel, Santorum had to walk past a contingent of students carrying peace signs, gay rights posters and campaign finance reform banners.