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Santorum finds fault with Obama, says Americans living in 'fear'
Jim McNally
Santorum as FreedomWorks’ guest speaker Monday at the Statesville Holiday Inn.
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Published: October 27, 2009
President Barack Obama has a lot of fans around the country and world.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum is not one of them.
Santorum believes many Americans are living in a state of dread that has been brewing since Obama's election last November.
"The biggest motivator I see in this country now is fear," Santorum told a crowd that gathered Monday morning at the Statesville Holiday Inn for an event sponsored by the conservative group FreedomWorks.
"And there is a lot to fear out there," added Santorum, who was a senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007. "We have a sense that something went seriously wrong in last year's elections."
And nothing went more wrong, according to Santorum, than Obama's victory over Sen. John McCain.
"When Barack Obama was campaigning, he said he was going to be a uniter," Santorum said.
"But people didn't listen to the next part of his speech when he talked about how much is wrong with America."
Santorum said Obama's message abroad is different from the one he delivers at home.
"He goes around the world apologizing for America and the past missteps of the American government," Santorum said. "Then he comes back and tries to convince the American people that government is the only answer."
And that kind of thinking, Santorum believes, will result in America becoming "a second-rate economy."
He said the nation's mindset will start to mirror what he called "European socialism," arguing that American values as the means to a successful life will be replaced by cronyism and nepotism.
Santorum said Americans now believe the road to success is through things like hard work, education, innovation and customer service.
In Europe, he said, "It's who you know and what family you're from."
Santorum did not mince words on whom he believes would be responsible for such a transformation.
He said Obama has abused the so-called "czar" system that has been in place since the Nixon administration, by which presidents appoint people to oversee special departments and bypass the typical Senate confirmation hearing process.
"Czars have been used sparingly until Obama came to town," Santorum said. "But there aren't enough government slots for him. He needs to create new positions all the time."
(According to factcheck.org, the George W. Bush administration had 35 positions known colloquially in the media as "czars." The Obama administration, so far, has had 32 such positions.)
Santorum said Obama is a man who is used to getting his way.
"This is a person who has never really lost," Santorum said. "And the mainstream media has protected him in everything he has done. The mainstream media will not hold him accountable. But when he does get caught, he gets mad and becomes indignant."
Santorum said Obama's problems cut right to the core of the man and are psychological in nature.
"He is a man of pure arrogance," Santorum said and then cited as an example of that arrogance, Obama's writing an autobiography, the 1995 book, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."
"Who in their late 20s writes an autobiography just because they made it through law school?" Santorum asked rhetorically.
Obama was actually 34 when the book was published.
"And then he wrote another book ("The Audacity of Hope") and guess what that one was about? Right, him," Santorum added. "He's written two autobiographies. So he goes around telling the world how bad America is and then he tells everyone how great he is. It's pure narcissism."
According to its Web site, FreedomWorks "recruits, educates, trains and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom."
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