It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s good.

He makes some very strong points about Obama and the Left – mainly, echoing the criticism that a lot of the public policy stances taken by Democrats are bent on buying votes rather than really helping people. And he outlines an economic plan which isn’t horrible. It’s not great, but it’s not horrible. Cutting the corporate tax rate in half is good. Going further and eliminating the corporate tax for manufacturers sounds good, but what it will do in practice is create chaos as everybody in the country lobbies up and lawyers up in an effort to declare themselves manufacturers.

Compare that to Obama’s budget, however, which would make the effective corporate tax rate upwards of 40 percent and you’ve got two starkly different visions at hand this fall.

Santorum isn’t a warm and fuzzy guy, at least not from the standpoint of the public persona he presents. He doesn’t bring much of a sense of humor to the table, and as such he’s easily demonized by the Left. That said, he’s a smart guy, he doesn’t seem to have a lot of hot air to him, which gives him a strong sense of authenticity that could do him some good, and he doesn’t give an inch. And if he’s up against Obama he’s electable in the right circumstances.

Listen in particular to the part where Santorum talks about energy, because outside of some of the things Rick Perry said when he was running this is the best presentation of energy policy/strategy in this race. Compare that to Obama, and particularly the way Santorum describes his energy policy, and this election offers a choice between sense and nonsense. That’s going to matter when the oil/gasoline price spike everybody sees coming materializes.

Of course, the major headline coming out of this was that Santorum defended economic inequality. It’s a risky line, but he’s getting hammered for it and that’s idiotic. Everybody who works in an office somewhere sees employees who work their butts off and others who screw around; there’s inequality everywhere. Why not come out and say it’s better to have inequality of result based on the fact there’s inequality of productivity?