Sen. Rick Santorum’s CPAC speech carved out a niche for himself as the Blue Collar Conservative, the champion of the ‘little guy.’

Santorum called on the GOP to be “pro-freedom, pro-family, pro-growth, and also pro-worker.”  He gets an A-plus from me as the only candidate I have seen so far to name the reality the average family is facing—a declining standard of living: “We have seen that wages over time have stagnated, the economy median income is declining. . .We need a vision that is focused on working men and women who are struggling in America today. . . and feeling like neither party really cares about them or talks about them. Seventy percent of Americans don’t have a college education. . .Pundits often wonder how I was able to win 11 states, even though I was outspent 4 or 5 to one. . .I won because I stood for someone, the little guy, the American worker.”

He jabbed implicitly at Jindal, Walker, Huckabee, and Christie when he pointed out: “Back in 2012, I wasn’t for Common Core, and today I’m still not for Common Core.”

Santorum seemed a bit underprepared when asked for the best way to dismantle Common Core, but he pointed to the bill introduced by Sen. David Vitter that would prevent the Department of Education from making waivers or grants dependent on adopting a particular curriculum or assessment.

Maggie Gallagher is the editor of ThePulse2016.com.