Towards the end of the debate, Santorum had an excellent moment speaking about the virtues of being a strong conservative in the midst of heavy criticism, and making the strongest case for his candidacy.
“They rejected conservatism when it was hard to stand,” Santorum said about Romney and Gingrich. “It’s going to be hard to stand whoever this president is going to be elected. It’s going to be tough. There is going to be a mountain of problems. It will be easy to be able to bail out and compromise your principles.”
