On the Sunday before tomorrow’s caucuses, scores of God-fearing Iowans looked on in wonderment at Rick Santorum’s Lazarus-like rise in the polls.
After services at Grace Church, which draws up to 1,400 worshippers each week, Victor Wicker, a history teacher, said he was “hopeful” of Santorum’s chances as the latest polls show him closing in on Mitt Romney.
“You like people not at the bottom. Now that he’s rising up again, I’m not going to be wasting my vote. I want to go with somebody who might win!” he said as he held the Bible he brought with him to services.
Other churchgoers were giving the social conservative a second chance.
“I’m looking for somebody fresh to step in there and say, ‘If we all bind together, God will make this country a good country again like it was,’ ” said Philip Lindser, who works for a company that does research and development.
Pastor Phil Winfield told The Post after his sermon that he votes on how a candidate defines marriage.
“Of all the candidates, Santorum says the most that I agree with,” he said.
The latest Des Moines Register poll puts Mitt Romney in the lead with 24 percent, followed by Ron Paul at 22 and Santorum at 15.
But Santorum jumped into second place when looking at the final two days of the four-day survey — right on Romney’s tail.
Romney, taking Santorum’s late challenge in Iowa seriously, rapped the former Pennsylvania senator as a career politician while campaigning here yesterday.
“[Santorum] spent his career in government in Washington. My background is quite different,’’ said Romney, who was an investment-bank CEO before serving as Massachusetts governor.
But Santorum capitalized on his surge by talking tough on international policy — saying he would order US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites if the Islamic country refused to open facilities to outside inspectors.
“I would be working openly with the state of Israel, and I would be saying to Iran, ‘You need to open up those facilities. You begin to dismantle them and make them available to inspectors, or we will degrade those facilities through airstrikes and make it very public that we are doing that,’ ” Santorum said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He also vowed to compete seriously in New Hampshire right after the Iowa vote, while candidates Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann plan on ceding the state to favorite Romney and instead moving on to South Carolina.
As for Gingrich, his personal foibles — he is on this third marriage after being unfaithful in the first two — seem to have taken their toll on his popularity among churchgoers.
“I’ve been disgusted with the baggage which Gingrich has,” said Myrtle Storm, who lives in an assisted living facility in Des Moines.
“I don’t trust him because of what he’s done in the past. If he had had one affair, I maybe could’ve forgiven him.”
For his part, Ron Paul did not stump in Iowa yesterday, but predicted a strong showing.
“I may come in first. I may come in second. I doubt if I’ll come in third or fourth,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”