Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is set to announce his presidential bid today, has his share of fans among conservatives — just read Kathryn Jean Lopez’s column from this morning. But he’ll be hurt by the fact that he’s very much a Bush era Republican.
Whatever his rhetoric, Santorum at the end of the day embraced many of the big government initiatives of the Bush administration, including the Medicare prescription drug plan. Though he now speaks out against earmarks, he took them while in the Senate. He also pushed milk supports for dairy farmers in rural Pennsylvania. And who can forget the fact thathe endorsed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in the 2004 GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania. And we all know how that turned out — Specter went on to become a Democrat and cast the deciding vote for Obamacare, while Toomey proved he could actually get elected statewide in Pennslyvania.
