A large part of the power of conservative movement support for Rick Santorum's campaign for president is that individual tea party and grass-roots conservatives aren't waiting around for someone to tell them what to do; they are showing individual leadership by mounting up and heading toward the sound of the guns to help Santorum in Michigan.
The lead in the Michigan polls has seesawed back and forth between the conservative Santorum and the establishment favorite — moderate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Romney's campaign team has always claimed to be confident that their superior fundraising would give them the firepower to defeat the insurgent Santorum campaign in the state where Romney's father was once governor, even though the polls still show Romney behind within the margin of error.
Part of the reason that Santorum is still in the fight, despite the difference in resources, is undoubtedly because his campaign learned a thing or two since the Romney Death Star hovered over Florida and vaporized Newt Gingrich in $20 million of negative advertising.
First and foremost among the lessons from Florida is that waiting around to gather the resources to compete with a Romney negative attack is a losing proposition. Santorum correctly got out in front of Romney with his now-famous "mud gun" ad reminding voters of Romney's propensity to go negative.
However, no one should underestimate the power of individual conservatives showing personal leadership and doing what conservatives always do when a job needs to be done — mounting up and doing it.
Grass-roots movement conservatives and tea partyers have added a lot of weight to the Santorum effort in Michigan simply by loading up their email to tell their friends who can vote in Michigan why they support Rick Santorum and why it is vitally important to vote for Rick in that state's Republican primary on Feb. 28.
This viral support for Santorum does a lot to explain why Rick continues to do well in areas where he has never campaigned and has spent little or no money on advertising.
The Conservative HQ has outlined our why we think
Santorum is the best candidate here.
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