Displaying a frothy mix of optimism and pragmatism, former Senator Rick Santorum is feeling good about his chances in the 2012 Iowa caucus:
He insists that before he planned his first trip to Iowa for a speech at Dubuque University in 2009, running for president had barely crossed his mind ...
The reception in Iowa was more than Santorum had hoped for, and since then, he’s traveled to the state more times than any other rumored 2012 hopeful.
“I haven’t been discouraged since,” he said.
This despite his obvious disadvantage in both name recognition -- versus a Gingrich, Huckabee, Palin, or a Romney -- and in his ability to raise money. But Santorum may have an ace in the hole:
Tom Beaumont reports that the college student running the Draft Santorum website is the brother of the Iowa secretary of state Matt Schultz -- though Schultz denies he's involved in his brother's effort:
However, Santorum campaigned for Schultz last summer and made the rounds with him at the Iowa State Fair in August.
What might be the byproduct of this connection between Santorum and Schultz? Time will tell.