He's less controversial than Huckabee for religious conservatives at this point.
He's also less likable and charismatic.
The strange thing about Rick Santorum is that he was less offensive and hateful in his 2012 campaign than he was in his twelve years in the Senate, and he's gotten progressively less inflammatory since then. Huckabee, meanwhile, is morphing into a fatter, less drugged up Rush Limbaugh.
I am actually pretty involved in Republican politics (no, I am not an elected politician), and I got to go to a town hall with him in February at CPAC and talk to him for maybe a minute after, and he seems like he would not be inflammatory at all this time around. Even when asked about how to protect the right to life, he gave an answer that I still have recorded on my phone basically saying that the best way is to treat everybody with compassion.
The only potential jab or anything like that was when he said that he would have won the general election in 2012 had he been nominated over Romney. I have yet to decide who I will support in the primaries and probably won't for at least a few more months, but I could easily get behind Santorum's campaign.
