Santorum wears small-town success as an honor, sweeps Louisiana demographically, geographically

Santorum in a batting cage at LSU. (Photo
by George Herbert, The Associated Press)

"Republican presidential nominating contests often reveal a rural-urban split in the party, but what sets this year's campaign apart is the emphasis Rick Santorum is placing on that divide and wearing his successes in small-town America as a badge of honor," Jim Kuhnhenn reports for The Associated Press, getting a deeper bite of an apple previously bitten here.

"To hear Santorum tell it, the ability of front-runner Mitt Romney to win in big-city suburbs is a mark of ideological weakness, not political strength," Kuhnhenn writes, quoting Santorum: "That might give you some indication as to who the candidate is who best reflects the values of the Republican Party."

UPDATE, March 25: Santorum won 49.2 percent of the vote in Louisiana, losing only Orleans Parish, "sweeping virtually every demographic category and apparently picking up supporters from the fading candidacy of Newt Gingrich," Jonathan Tilove of The Times-Picayune reports.

Kuhnhenn notes that the former Pennsylvania senator has consistently won rural areas, where he "happily embraces the culture. He worships with Pentecostals in central Louisiana one day and campaigns at a gun range in the north on another, testing his marksmanship by pulling the trigger of a .45-caliber semiautomatic Colt pistol." As Santorum fired a few rounds at the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office Rifle Range, a woman shouted: “Pretend it’s Obama,” The Washington Post reports. "Santorum said later that he didn’t hear the comment," and said, "It’s a very terrible and horrible remark, and I’m glad I didn’t hear it."

Today's edition of The Advocate in Baton Rouge has a story detailing Santorum's reactions to inflammatory statements by the Rev. Dennis Terry, a local Baptist minister whose "sermon Sunday evening went viral" because he said "If you don’t love America, if you don’t like the way we do things, I got one thing to say: Get out!" Special writer Mark Hunter reports, "His comment drew applause from most, but not from Santorum, who smiled but didn’t clap."

Then Terry said, “We don’t worship Buddha — I said we don’t worship Buddha — we don’t worship Muhammad, we don’t worship Allah, we worship God. We worship God’s son Jesus Christ,” and turned to Santorum, “holding open his arms as the candidate smiled, but didn’t applaud like the rest of the audience.” (Read more)