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Santorum latest GOP candidate to channel Tim Tebow
Rick Santorum is the latest Republican presidential candidate to try to
align his fortunes with popular Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.
The
former Pennsylvania senator was photographed Wednesday "Tebowing" with
supporters at a campaign event in Lakewood, Colo., where he was endorsed
by former GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo. The picture was posted to the Tumblr
blog of his Iowa campaign manager, Cody Brown.
The Internet meme — in which individuals adopt the quarterback's
signature kneel for photographs — originated from a website launched by
Broncos fan Jared Kleinstein.
"Tebowing is defined as to get down
on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing
something completely different," Kleinstein's website says.
But Santorum is not the only GOP candidate to try to capture some of the excitement surrounding the star quarterback.
A political action committee supporting Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign, now defunct, debuted an ad last month that compared the Minnesota congressman to Tebow.
The ad notes that "the establishment sports guys love to hate Tim Tebow:
he's not smart enough, his mechanics are no good, he's not accurate
enough — still, he just keeps winning." The ad goes on to argue that
Tebow makes sports fans "feel guilty" because he doesn't "drink, cuss,
smoke, or kick opponents when they're down" and because he is a
born-again Christian.
As pictures of Tebow and Bachmann flashed across the screen, the
announcer drew parallels between the candidate and the quarterback.
"The
same could be said of Michele Bachmann: no baggage, Christian, and like
Tebow, she keeps fighting and she just keeps winning votes," the
announcer says.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also got in on Tebow fever, saying he hoped
he would be the "Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses" during a debate in
Sioux City in December, arguing that he could engineer a late comeback
to overcome his sagging poll numbers.
"There are a lot of folks that said Tim Tebow wasn't going to be a
very good NFL quarterback," Perry said. "There are people that stood up
and said, 'Well, he doesn't have the right throwing mechanisms, or he's
not playing the game right.' And he won two national championships, and
that looked pretty good. We were the national champions in job creation
back in Texas."
Perry dropped his bid for the GOP nomination Jan. 19.
The quarterback has not endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary,
although has admitted to being approached by multiple campaigns.
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