His is easily the most searing personal narrative offered by any candidate this season. And when he speaks of Bella publicly, it is almost always in conjunction with his top policy goal of dismantling the health-care reform legislation, which he sees as a threat to those like her, “on the margins of life.”
Yet after he shared the story of her struggle and his decision to run anyway — not so much in spite of her fragile condition as because of it — people at King’s event didn’t seem to know how to respond; as the former Pennsylvania senator slowly worked his way through the emptying ballroom after the dinner, nobody mentioned his daughter, though one woman asked if his children ever got to travel with him.
In a heartbreaking situation, and running near the back of the pack in the polls, Santorum said the campaign has been “incredibly hard” on his family — emotionally and financially. He’s given up all paid employment, including his work for Fox News, to make the run.
Of course, all families of presidential contenders make extraordinary sacrifices, surrendering privacy, dignity and, sometimes, the inheritance in the hope that their loved one catches on. And other candidates have crisscrossed the country despite a serious illness or other pressing family matter back home. Democrat John Edwards was pilloried for continuing his 2008 presidential campaign after his wife Elizabeth’s cancer came back, though we now know that it was she who insisted he stay in the race. (And while the disapproval may have been warranted, it turns out we had the cause all wrong.)
The ’08 Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, was criticized for running while parenting young children, including an infant with Down syndrome. Either out of compassion or — more likely — because he’s polling so poorly, Santorum has been spared that kind of opprobrium.
‘I really struggled’
But the demands on his family, as he described them in an interview after the dinner, have been particularly punishing. He’s on the road virtually all the time, while his wife, Karen, cares for Isabella full time. (Karen Santorum was not available to talk.) Of their seven children, the oldest of whom is 20, he said, “They have opinions all over the map as to whether they want me to do this or not.”
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