Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania pitched himself as a battle-tested conservative who stands for “the little guy” at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, saying foreign experience is key for someone to square off against former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016.
“We need someone who can unite this country around a vision, an economic vision that can pull us together,” he said. “A vision that’s focused on working men and women who are struggling in America today. A vision that says we can restore our manufacturing base, we can improve our infrastructure, we can increase our energy development - all to help the people in this country who are lagging behind and feeling like neither party really cares about them or talks about them.”
He said he won 11 states in the 2012 GOP presidential contest, despite being vastly outspent, because he “stood for someone — the little guy. The American worker.”
“And if we’re gonna win in 2016, we need to stand for the little guy, too,” he said.
He also knocked the “Obama-Clinton” foreign policy team, saying “the world is a dangerous place” and “more complex.”
“We need someone with real experience to be able to rebuild our military,” he said. “The likelihood that we’re gonna face a former secretary of state means that we need someone who has a long and deep understanding of the threats that confront us, particularly the threat of radical Islam.”
It wasn’t just Obama’s “liberal outlook,” but his “profound lack of experience” that has created problems for the country, Mr. Santorum said, touting his eight years of experience on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Commander in chief is not an entry-level position,” he said. “And the Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training — not in times like this.”
To combat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, he proposed arming the Kurds and increasing aid to Jordan, and also called for boots on the ground.
“If ISIS wants to establish a 7th century caliphate, well let’s oblige them by bombing them back to the 7th century,” he said.
Even if the world bands together to defeat the group, he said, “if Iran gains a nuclear weapon, we will have failed our time.”
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