The Other McCain

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Santorum Gets 4 ‘Clean Kills’ in Pheasant Hunt With Steve King; No Endorsement

Posted on | December 26, 2011 | 13 Comments

ADEL, Iowa
Today’s hunt at Doc’s Gun Club was successful for Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who said he got four “clean kills,” and also saw his teenage son John get his first bird. Santorum also got some solid publicity for his campaign, as a horde of media turned out to cover his post-hunt press conference with Rep. Steve King.

What Santorum didn’t get was King’s much-coveted endorsement — at least not yet. The conservative GOP congressman praised Santorum but said he hasn’t yet decided whether to endorse anyone before the Jan. 3 caucuses, now just eight days away.

Influential Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace said on Twitter: “No other way to say it, but no Steve King endorsement hurts whatever hopes Rick Santorum had of being the Cinderella story on Jan. 3.”

Yet King said he hasn’t ruled out an endorsement and would continue reflecting on it. Could he be building suspense for a future news cycle?

Well, I’ve got photos and video of today’s event, but the WiFi connection at this particular McDonald’s has bandwidth issues that prevent me uploading in any kind of timely manner so (like a Steve King endorsement) that will have to wait. There is a caucus volunteer training event tonight in Cedar Rapids and my driver Aaron Rupp says, “We gotta hurry.”

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Comments

13 Responses to “Santorum Gets 4 ‘Clean Kills’ in Pheasant Hunt With Steve King; No Endorsement”

  1. Dcmick
    December 26th, 2011 @ 6:44 pm

    Endorsements don’t mean spit, other than an endorsement from Sarah Palin, which might move some voters.

  2. ThePaganTemple
    December 26th, 2011 @ 6:50 pm

    Pheasant? Was John Kerry there by any chance?

  3. EBL
    December 26th, 2011 @ 6:58 pm

    John Kerry thinks of voters as peasants.

    Oh wait, you are probably thinking of this.  http://articles.nydailynews.com/2004-10-22/news/18271923_1_dead-birds-aides-john-kerry

  4. EBL
    December 26th, 2011 @ 7:00 pm

    That is generally true Dcmick, but Iowa voters like to follow a dominant bull and join a herd.  

  5. Charles
    December 26th, 2011 @ 8:08 pm

    Steve King is stuck because by all rights he should endorse his tea party colleague and neighbor Michele Bachmann. Next he should endorse Rick Perry for his shared ag roots. Then he should endorse fellow Catholic Rick Santorum.

  6. ThePaganTemple
    December 26th, 2011 @ 9:33 pm

    Yeah that’s it. Too bad they didn’t have a pic of him walking with his gun barrel opened for safety purposes the way you’re supposed to, supposedly, but which almost nobody ever does, that I know of. That was one of the funniest and the phoniest damn things I ever did saw, ol’ Liveshot Kerry giving the photogs his best Liveshot grin.

  7. ThePaganTemple
    December 26th, 2011 @ 9:35 pm

    Seems to me like the “Tea Party colleague” part that he shares with Michelle should take precedence over all that other incidental stuff.

  8. Adjoran
    December 26th, 2011 @ 10:11 pm

    Like you’d catch Ol’ Magic Hat in flyover country when he isn’t running for something!  He was ticked off last time because the birds wouldn’t fly when he cried, “Pull!”

  9. Adjoran
    December 26th, 2011 @ 10:20 pm

    When I was Sales Manager for a small newspaper, the head of Printing had a saying:  “There are no ‘problems’ here – only situations and opportunities.”

    King has an opportunity here because he so popular among Iowa conservatives and because the race is so wide open with potentially five candidates who could end up in double digits in a close caucus.  But if he picks one, he may burn some bridges with the others, especially if his endorsed candidate doesn’t win the nomination.  Not a huge thing, but sometimes past slights affect close decisions – it’s human nature.

    The smart play may be to stay out of it while being generous with praise of those he likes, like Santorum.

  10. Zilla of the Resistance
    December 26th, 2011 @ 10:49 pm

    Linked here:
    http://zillablog.marezilla.com/2011/12/resister-updates-instalanche-edition.html
    Did you here that I got my first Instalanche, Stacy? NOW I know what all the hubbub is about!

  11. Donald Douglas
    December 27th, 2011 @ 1:33 am

    Linked: ‘Rick Santorum Hunts for Caucus Success in Iowa’.

  12. Anonymous
    December 27th, 2011 @ 1:41 am

    “the WiFi connection at this particular McDonald’s”

    What you need is a tip jar sugar daddy to hook you up with 4G Internet.

    Heck, if you make the courteous practice of buying something at all these Wi-Fi stops you make, it would probably pay for itself.

  13. Mike Rogers
    December 27th, 2011 @ 3:05 am

    Linked here http://granitegrok.com/blog/2011/12/our-contributions-at-work-reports-from-the-hawkeye-traill#more-13927

    And shamelessly rattling the tip jar for you. Happy trails!