Santorum grilled at campaign HQ

by Jess Anderson
Presidency and the Press

Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum discussed his campaign platform with student media at his New Hampshire headquarters in Manchester today.

Students participating in the 6th Presidency and the Press conference for Franklin Pierce University dominated the meet-and-greet hosted by Santorum’s campaign staff, posing queries ranging from the role of his family to Intelligent Design.

Adam Haidari, a student reporter, said he spent the first five minutes or so repeating his question in his head so he wouldn’t forget it before he was able to ask it aloud.

“I liked his answer a lot,” said Haidari. “He didn’t disappoint and even added a little bit extra.”

“I wanted [the student reporters] to have the confidence to be able to approach the candidates with the questions they wanted answers to,” said Dr. Kristen Nevious, director of the FPU Fitzwater Center for Communications. “The questions were insightful and the candidate treated them with respect.”

Santorum’s responses reflected his faith in the ability of his campaign to retake Washington, stating a belief that, like building a house, he and his team must work from the ground up.

“We’re building the foundation,” he said. “That’s what this campaign is all about–building a great, great country.”

However, though Santorum seemed comfortable fielding questions about such issues as the economy and his pro-life track record, his stance on the atheist and agnostic voters was a little less clear.

“I believe in a country where everybody, people of faith and people of no faith can have access to the public square, and people can make their claims,” he said. “My concern, as a person of faith, is that we’re seeing, increasingly, hostility toward people of faith being in the public square and articulating that vision.”

He said, “I would say as long as we are equal about allowing folks to come out and have equal voice and equal vision, that, to me… is the perfect remedy.”

Nevious said she was proud that the students had managed to ask “good, hard questions” and recalled a conversation among campaign staffers wishing the candidate would be asked more “soft” questions.

According to Nevious, this helped make the experience a success. “It really was a good taste of a campaign meeting,” she said.