Politics: Learn To Talk Like Rick Santorum

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Politics Learn To Talk Like Rick Santorum The Q-W-A Maneuver, the Pop Quiz, and more of the Republican candidate's best rhetorical tricks. By David Weigel Posted Thursday, Jan 05, 2012, at 11:38 PM ET NORTHFIELD, N.H.—You're angry, you're confused, and Rick Santorum knows why. "This administration is crushing the business community," he says at a town hall here, in a rehabbed train station warmed by 150 or so voters and 50 or so reporters. "WHY? Because they know better!" This is what I have come to know as the Santorum Q-W-A Maneuver. First comes the rhetorical question. Then comes the WHY?, delivered in a rasp that vacates his lungs. Then—phew!—comes the common-sensical answer. "The Social Security deficit has been made worse by this president. WHY? Because he's reduced the payroll tax!" "There was a push to sign up more people to Medicare. WHY? Because they wanted to get people dependent. They wanted to get you hooked." Santorum arrived in New Hampshire on Wednesday after a photo-finish Iowa loss to Mitt Romney that might as well have been a win. His crowds in towns like these, 30- or 60-minute rides from Manchester, are never smaller than 100. Some perspective: At a morning rally in Plymouth, not far from here, in another rehabbed train station (converted into a nursing home), only half as many people trekked to hear Newt Gingrich. In the insta-polls that tell the media who and what to cover, Jon Huntsman—who's campaigned here and only here since the summer, making more than 100 stops and countless excruciating jokes about his "New Hampshire accent"—is tied with Johnny-come-lately Santorum. Over 24 hours, I watched Santorum ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Kaplan: The Coming Pentagon Cuts Will Change the Very Nature of the Army and Marines Is Obama About To Repeat FDR's Big Economic Mistake of 1937? Yglesias: The Addition of 200,000 New Jobs Last Month Is Not Something To Celebrate	Advertisement
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