US ELECTIONS/ Santorum: the surprise of the Iowa caucus

Wow, WOW! Like so many I stayed up late last night, well into the morning, to watch the results of the Iowa Caucus. The leader of votes kept flipping painfully back and forth from Romney to Santorum until Romney was declared the winner by only 8 votes, 8 votes out of 122,255 voters from 1,774 precincts. That is simply amazing. I feel so proud to be an American at this moment. Every American should be proud. Democracy works. I thank God for being an American.

Allow me to explain a little of my past before I proceed any further. I grew up in the Midwest, specifically Missouri, in a Reagan Democrat family. Neither one of my parents are college graduates. Each day they got up to go to work to provide for their family, to give their kids something better than they had. They believed in the American Dream and they lived it. They passed those values onto me. I am one of the first college graduates in the history of my family. While in college I was a Young Democrat and I worked for the Bill Clinton campaign. I have also been blessed since that time with a successful professional career and a beautiful family. For any candidate to win the U.S. Presidency they must win the middle-class vote, they must win the hearts and minds of average working Americans.

Frankly until last night, I hadn't made up my mind on who exactly that I was going to support. Like so many other voters in the current election cycle, I like one, or a couple, aspects of one candidate and different aspects from other candidates. Rick Santorum's speech after the Iowa Caucus sealed the deal for me personally. It is a speech that is a "must-watch" by all voters this election cycle. If you haven't seen the entire video of his speech, take the time to do so. You will not regret it. Santorum's speech was so powerful and moving that Romney had to scrap his own prepared speech after seeing it. Romney went back to a successful stump speech, and it showed. Do you trust a candidate who gives overly tailored messages by speech writers or actually speaks from heart? The American people must judge and vote accordingly to their own consciences.

What I personally believe that we need today in a candidate for President is a person who understands life, someone who really gets it. No issue is more important. Too often candidates talk the Pro-Life rhetoric but have little to no honest intentions of doing anything to effect real change for the cause of human life. Deeply related to the first issue of life is that of being Pro-Family. Will that candidate sign into law and put into place policies that truly support and strengthen the core of America, and any civilization, which is the family. At the end of the day, those two issues are more important than any others in my personal opinion.