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Santorum Cracks the Code to Getting Coverage

May 25, 2010

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Rick Santorum, the former two-term Republican Senator from Pennsylvania and current Fox News contributor and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, was apparently having a hard time getting heard in the media, but has now figured out the key to getting some ink and airtime already.

From today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (emphasis mine):

It will be months before former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum decides whether to run for president in 2012, but all the recent talk that he might be a candidate has gotten him a lot more attention from the public and the news media…

…Since Fox News, where he works as a commentator, first mentioned that Mr. Santorum might run in 2012, “I am amazed and surprised at the response I am getting,” he said. “But I am a long way from making a decision about whether that (2012 race) is something I will do.”

Mr. Santorum…said that before the presidential speculation began, he would travel to other states to campaign for candidates and neither voters nor reporters paid a whole lot of attention to what he said.

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But now, he’s been traveling to states that have early presidential primaries in 2012, such as New Hampshire, South Carolina and Iowa, and a lot of people are interested in his views…

So, yeah, “Santorum to stay on primary circuit” (because, again, ” ‘When you go to those states, folks like you report what I say,’ Mr. Santorum said,” as reported by the Scranton Times-Tribune. )

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Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.