Former senator and one-time Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum laid out his plans this week to launch a second White House bid, but almost no one seemed to care.
“We’re just obviously in a better place right now. Our message will be a lot more focused this time than it was last time,” Santorum said of his 2016 ambitions in an interview Tuesday with the Washington Post.
Washington Post national political correspondent Karen Tumulty reported: “Santorum is running again. The question is whether, as the race heads to new terrain, he’ll still be able to keep the pace.”
What’s interesting about Tumulty’s article, titled “Rick Santorum is running for president again — and says this time will be different,” is that it has gone largely unnoticed by other media, an oddity considering the glut of reports on other potential 2016 GOP candidates, including retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and reality television entrepreneur Donald Trump.
Santorum’s past as a U.S. lawmaker and his modest showing during the 2012 Republican presidential primaries — he finished second, losing out eventually to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — means his remarks Tuesday merit at least some notice beyond the Post.
However, the only examples of Santorum’s 2016 ambitions being mentioned on cable news, which has an almost insatiable desire for 2016 gossip, have been a brief mention on “Fox and Friends” and a segment on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” according to Mediate’s Evan McMurry.
“That was it,” he wrote. “[I]t appears the major news outlets remain more fascinated with glitzier names like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mitt Romney 3.0, and even Lindsey Graham than they are with Santorum.”
But this apparent lack of interest in candidate Santorum may actually work to the former senator’s benefit.
“America loves an underdog. We’re definitely the underdog in this race,” Santorum told the Post, adding that being “underestimated” has “given me a lot of latitude.”
A lack of attention, or having the appearance of being disliked by the so-called, monolithic “media,” may actually bolster Santorum’s so-called “underdog” image. At least, he hopes it does.
For now, Santorum must deal with a news media that continues to focus on the same five possible GOP contenders who have dominated the Battle of the Mentions that erupted when President Obama won re-election in 2012: Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., former Govs. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and Jeb Bush, R-Fla., and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
