A Kinder, Gentler Rick Santorum - Dave Weigel

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/02/now_that_rick_santorum_is_leading_in_national_polls_he_is_softening_his_social_conservatism_.html

The Rick Santorum who’s soaring in primary polls looks a lot like the Santorum who lost his 2006 re-election bid by 18 points. Here is a difference: His culture war talk is softer, more implied. He talks up his welfare reform role and his doom-saying about Iran far more than he talks up his stances on homosexuality or Prop 8. He doesn’t need to emphasize it, because the people who acid-test Republicans on social issues know they can trust him. He rallied for Terri Schiavo once; he doesn’t have much else to prove.