Israel Matzav

A good man endorses a good man

I've mentioned a couple of times over the last few months that I have had the pleasure of meeting Hot Air's Ed Morrissey in person - first at the President's Conference here in Jerusalem in June, and then at the Hudson Institute Conference on Global Intolerance in New York in September. Aside from all his well-thought-out posts, Ed is an amazingly nice guy in person.

With the Minnesota caucuses coming up, Ed has made his choice for the Republican nominee for President, and it's a choice that I have been thinking about as well for a while now (and have hinted at a lot already). Seeing Ed put it so well has inspired me to come right out and say it, albeit for slightly different reasons. Ed has endorsed Rick Santorum (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

Before I explain that decision, let’s be clear. I could cast a vote happily for Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich in a general election. Both are massive improvements over the current incumbent, and both have admirable qualities that would reflect well on the GOP once in office — even if those admirable qualities aren’t always on display now. I will enthusiastically support any of those three men should they win the nomination. My focus will be on beating Barack Obama and promoting the conservative agenda, in that order, throughout 2012, and I also believe that any of those three could beat Obama in a general election campaign.

Why Santorum? In my estimation, Santorum is the last consistent conservative standing, and the only one both promoting the conservative agenda and campaigning as a conservative in the race. That doesn’t make Santorum perfect; he lacks the executive experience I’d like to see, and some of his positions in the past and present give me pause. However, compared to the heterodoxies of his competitors in the GOP race, Santorum has a superior record on promoting conservative policies and values.

Even more than that, though, Santorum has demonstrated a level of personal integrity in this race that outshines the rest of the field.

Read it all.

And let me add that Santorum has been the most consistently pro-Israel of the three candidates, and doesn't have any skeletons in his closet regarding past support of the 'Palestinians.' But I agree that Romney and Gingrich would both be improvements over the current occupant of the White House.

By the way, the two good men in the title of this post are Ed Morrissey and Rick Santorum. I'm small potatoes next to them.

Labels: Campaign 2012, Ed Morrissey, RIck Santorum

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:12 PM