A new problem for Santorum in Iowa: Overcrowding

PELLA, Iowa - Rick Santorum encountered a problem here Saturday afternoon that his campaign was not experiencing as recently as a week ago: overcrowding.

With momentum apparently building for the former Pennsylvania senator, a crowd of well over 100 filled a room at the library in this city of 10,000 to overflowing. After some concerned conversations among local supporters about people perhaps being turned away, the event was moved outside amid uncharacteristically mild temperatures.

A confident and energized Santorum, dressed in a gray sweater-vest, open necked shirt and slacks, addressed the crowd outside the library's entrance, urging them in essence to hold their collective nerve against any suggestion that he would be unelectable in the general election against President Obama.

"Don't defer, lead this country," Santorum said after noting his low standing in the polls until recently. For those conservatives tempted to vote for a more moderate candidate than they might ideally wish, Santorum warned that, come November, "winning a Pyrrhic victory is not a win."

Santorum, who has visited all of Iowa's 99 counties, spent much of his brief speech none-too subtly reminding voters of his diligent retailing campaigning in the state. He reminded the city's residents that he had marched in their Fourth of July parade, and asserted that he had held three townhall meetings already in Pella.

Mitt Romney and Ron Paul led the last round of polling in Iowa, but Santorum trailed by only 8 percent in the NBC News-Marist poll. Santorum's support climbed by 9 percentage-points from the previous edition of the poll.

Santorum took three questions, on immigration, taxes and healthcare. Only the last was even somewhat skeptical in tone. He was asked whether he would do away with the provision in the Affordable Care Act that effectively guarantees that even people with preexisting conditions will be covered.

Santorum argued that the Obama-inspired provision was only made possible by the mandate to buy health insurance which – he affirmed via a show of hands — nobody in the crowd favored.

"I don't want people not to have insurance with a pre-existing condition," Santorum added. But he said that anyone who fell into that category "should pay more" since they were a higher risk to an insurance company than a healthy person.

The Iowan who asked the question, Tom Livengold, told The Hill afterward that he had asked the same thing of several candidates and that Santorum "probably gave the best answer of any of them."

At the end of the event, Santorum thanked Iowans for having made him a better candidate. Referring to the inquiry about pre-existing conditions, he pointed at a nearby TV camera and said, "The first time I got that question, I'm glad that camera wasn't there."

Hustling away to his next event, Santorum would tell reporters only that "We feel very good about things."

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