From Montgomery, Alabama -
Arriving for his fifth and final stop of Monday just down the street from the Alabama State Capitol, Rick Santorum deviated from his normal hour-long stump speech for a simple reason - he had to be on TV with Sean Hannity.
"I can only talk for 15 minutes," Santorum said with a big smile. "You're the luckiest crowd at any of my town hall meetings."
After breakfast on the Gulf Coast and barbeque in Tuscaloosa, Santorum was a well oiled sound bite machine, as he ran through his stump speech with rapid fire cadence, drawing loud cheers from the over 100 people on hand to see him.
"It's very, very clear where this race is headed if the people of Alabama and Mississippi are willing to step up for us," Santorum said, arguing that the GOP battle is only between him and Mitt Romney.
Santorum also made the case that he is the "consistent conservative," not the guy that is sometimes referred to as the Massachusetts Moderate.
"If we nominate a conservative, we will defeat Barack Obama in the general election and Alabama will have led the way," Santorum said to big cheers, before exiting stage left for his Hannity interview.
Santorum's crowd wasn't huge last night, making me wonder if he has the electoral stimulus necessary to win.
The polls show he is close - and victories in either Alabama or Mississippi would be a big shot in the arm for him - especially if Newt Gingrich is shut out.
