The folks over at Townhall.com have an interesting book review of Rick Santorum's, It Takes a Family. 

I could care less about Santorum's challenges or abilities with his writing style, but what makes the review interesting, is their analysis of Santorum's political options.

From the review:

In the run-up to his 2006 re-election campaign, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum had two choices: slouch toward the center to run deceitfully, but perhaps successfully, as a “moderate” or stand up and proudly be counted – and criticized and possibly defeated – as a leader of the conservative movement. In publishing It Takes a Family less than two years before the political fight of his life, Santorum has boldly chosen the latter.

That is a fascinating way to characterize his choices.  As someone who was deeply involved in the Aschroft 2000 race, I can tell you that Ashcroft chose differently.  By the end of the race, for all practical purposes, he was running as a moderate Democrat, with talk of an HMO Patient's Bill of Rights, and a Social Security lockbox thrown in for good measure.

According to the reveiewer, Santorum has clearly chosen a different path than Ashcroft.  But it's not about standing on principle, it's quite blatantly a political strategy.  And the Rick Santorum and the GOP are putting 100% of their eggs in that basket.  In case you missed the point in the beginning, the reviewer hits it one more time at the end.

The key to a Santorum victory is simple: high voter turn-out among social conservatives, particularly in rural areas. And that’s exactly where It Takes a Family will resonate.

As a friend of mine likes to say, "Let me know how that works out for you."