Will Sarah Palin Endorse Rick Santorum?

COMMENTARY | Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has not yet revealed whom she will endorse. But some, including Gary Cohen at Newsmax, suggests that person may well be former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

This assessment is based on an off-hand remark Palin made during an interview on Fox News's Sean Hannity show in which she seemed to praise Santorum for "ideological consistency." That seemed to be a subtle poke at the current front runner, Newt Gingrich, who has been accused of straying from conservative orthodoxy on such issues as climate change and illegal immigration.

A Palin endorsement of Santorum would make sense if Gingrich began to stumble, as Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann have before him. Santorum would be the last conservative standing, with the possible exception of Ron Paul, whose isolationist views make it unlikely that Palin would endorse him.

Santorum has hewed to a conventional conservative line, pro-life, anti-same sex marriage, pro-small government, and pro-defeat the terrorists, according to the issues page on his campaign website.

He, however, is vulnerable to a certain extent for his views on gay people, including same sex marriage and the recently repealed don't ask don't tell policy in the U.S. military. Many social conservatives have reservations about gay rights and homosexuality, but Santorum has been outspoken on the subject to a greater extent than most. In a 2003 interview with the Associated Press, as reported by CNN, Santorum equated homosexual acts between consenting adults to incest, bigamy, and adultery and therefore subject to regulation or even prohibition by the government. Santorum was widely criticized for those remarks at the time, though he has remained unrepentant.

All of this is academic if Gingrich does not stumble in the next month and wins the Iowa Caucus. Santorum has not been able to gain any traction with Republican voters, who have gravitated from candidate to candidate in search of the one person who could defeat Barack Obama.

So Palin has a choice. She could endorse Gingrich, which would certainly place him over the top, or she could endorse one of the lower tier candidates, such as Santorum, and thus make a fight of the campaign for the Republican nomination. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. The important thing will be for Palin to endorse someone who both adheres most closely to her vision for the country and who can win.

Sources: Palin Energizes Santorum WH Bid, Gary Cohen, Newsmax, Dec. 3, 2011

Where I Stand, Rick Santorum

Santorum under fire for comments on homosexuality, Sean Loughlin, CNN, Apr 22, 2003