Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Herman Cain made the "right decision" in suspending his campaign.
"Herman's gone through a very difficult time," he said on ABC's "This Week." "I think he made the right decision to leave for his family and the country. It clearly was a distraction that wasn’t going to go away."
Cain suspended his campaign Saturday, saying that allegations of multiple sexual improprieties had made it impossible for him to continue to run.
While Cain, like many other GOP candidiates, enjoyed a brief run at the top of the polls, Santorum said it was a "great thing" he hadn't had a run to the top yet, leaving him with an opportunity to still surge. Newt Gingrich is currently riding high, surging to the top alongside Mitt Romney after his campaign barely survived the summer.
"If you look at all these little boomlets, they last about 4-6 weeks, Newt’s at about week three," said Santorum. "We think we’re going to surprise a lot of people."
The former Pennsylvania senator who has defined himself largely as an advocate for socially conservative issues, jabbed Gingrich for his lack of leadership in those areas.
"I think Newt has consistently put those, let’s say, on the back of the bus," he said. "Newt’s someone that likes to get issues that are 80-90 percent of the polls."
He added that issues like Gingrich's multiple marriages and past history of infidelity should be fair game for voters assessing the various candidiates, while pointing out that he has been married for 21 years and has seven children.
"I think character is definitely an issue," he said. "Character counts."
Santorum, who currently is running at the bottom of polls for the upcoming Iowa caucuses, admitted he would need to beat those projections to stay in the race, but was optimistic he could blow them out of the water.
"We need to surprise, we need to finish ahead of several candidates," he said. “I think we have a very good chance of winning Iowa."
