GMA NEW YORK —BobZaguy GMA NEW YORK – “We stood up and didn’t back away, we said ‘We’re In It to Win It,’ and we didn’t back down. Really, we didn’t back down,” former Senator Rick Santorum said.
No one was standing next to him as he spoke at this pre-announcement televised press conference to announce his decision to have a presidential campaign kick-off press conference.
Santorum will formally kick-off the 2012 GOPTea presidential campaign in a small-town Pennsylvania coal mine similar to the place where he grew up. The local coal mine close to his hometown blew out and is now a recreational lake with an upscale blue collar water park resort.
“I will then advance and appear in coal mines in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina later in the week. You won’t see me skipping Iowa,” he explained. “My grandfather was a coal miner in several states that aren’t in today’s politically necessary-early primary states.”
He continued, “I want to bring the country back to our early years of coal mining. Back to the states that missed out on it. I loved going to the mines with my granddad back in the day. It was a formative experience for me as a young man. I was only 6, but I had my own helmet with a light that worked and everything. I got to hold the bird cage too.” He seemed to be a little dreamy at this point.
He re-focused and continued, “Then I will be the first-ever presidential campaign contestant on that popular TV show that I love to watch, ‘In it To Win It’. On the show, I will have three chances to try to win a difficult straw poll election. The election will be set up with a real studio audience voting with authentic straws and everything. It is a real white knuckle opportunity for me. Straw poll counting is big-time serious business that can be tricky if you don’t know the complexities. I can’t wait.
“I want everyone to stay tuned to see if I succeed,” he promoted. “We taped the show four weeks ago, so I hope you all will tune in when the show airs later and watch me as I try to win this important straw poll election before the campaign starts. I am awesome and we didn’t back down. That’s all I’m allowed to reveal at this time.”
Then he held up his hand and said the beginning of the catch-phrase, “In It…,” pausing dramatically like the show’s host does, but there was no one at the presser ready to finish it for him.
“I didn’t back down before when I was a Senator. I just lost the election,” Santorum told me later. “but you know what? I may have lost but I didn’t flinch. I stood by my values and continued my fight to the end. You want to see my miner’s helmet?” he asked. “It’s so cool.”