When I choose what candidate deserves my support, I predominantly look to two factors: how qualified and how consistent they are. Rick Santorum gets an A+ in both of these categories. Because he has served as one of the top ranking senators and chaired the armed services committee, no one has more breadth and depth of knowledge.

Serving as a U.S. senator, no one fought as passionately as Rick Santorum. Whether it was relentlessly speaking for hours late into the night about his personal convictions on the issue of abortion or drawing sharp criticism because of his statements about potential threats to American security, he was never shy or cautious.

Santorum is no politician. He is not one to calculate the effect of his statements or fine tune them to shape his identity; this is both his greatest strength and weakness. When he speaks he holds nothing back and, at times, the courage of his raw honesty is powerful.

Just look to his performance at the recent family leader forum. He held the audience in the palm of his hand as he confessed his struggle to muster the strength to love a daughter whose survival was so uncertain. You could have heard a pin drop.

Rick Santorum is radically different than what we have now and uncompromising in his beliefs, but he is certainly no radical. He has been well received by many Democrats and Republicans alike during the course of his many campaigns. Focusing on improving the manufacturing sector is not a strictly free market position and, as such, is certainly no hardline partisan stance.

Maintaining the same definition of marriage that has been beneficially used in Eastern and Western civilization for the past 1,000 years is certainly no radical proposition, though it is treated as such by his often vicious opponents (the desecration of his last name on Google is only one example of this).

Republicans want a winner, and Rick Santorum has developed a style that successfully wins in Democrat territory. Key to this ability is his strong support for manufacturing jobs, a stand which is certainly not lost on blue-collar “Reagan Democrats.” This is the reason he was able to beat three incumbent Democrats. He achieved this in a predominantly blue state when running as senator and overwhelmingly blue districts as a member of the house.

No matter who we pick, there will be no easy fix to the troubles we now face. Rick Santorum is not a messiah; he is a good man who doesn’t change his positions to suit his interests, a fact that cost him dearly in the leftist climate of 2006. He never quits, he fights, and he understands what makes America uniquely great.

Santorum has as much understanding of the gears and mechanics of policy-making as any and he is — in this humble student’s opinion — a needed change to the phonies that pervade in our national politics today. In short, he is experienced, bold and honest. Look for him to turn some heads this January.