Rick Santorum tries to emulate Ronald Reagan in president's childhood town Reporting from Dixon, Ill. - You might call it a Reagan love-fest. Standing in front of a statue of Ronald Reagan on a horse, on a street called Reagan Way, Rick Santorum on Monday invoked the 40th president and his political platforms in an effort to gain momentum in the town where Reagan spent his childhood. The former Pennsylvania senator said Reagan's name countless times, and even Santorum's campaign song, a twangy country piece that was on repeat before and after the event, mentioned the Gipper in an awkward rhyme: "There is hope for our nation again, maybe for the first time since we had Ronald Reagan." "Ronald Reagan understood that faith plus family equals freedom," Santorum said in a speech in front of a cheering crowd waving American flags and holding signs that read DON'T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA. He went out and painted a vision of who we are, what we came from and what we can be in the future. Most Republican candidates speak of Reagan during their campaigns, but Santorum took this strategy to the extreme in the town that knew Reagan as "Dutch," spending most of his speech referring to aspects of Reagan's "three-legged stool" of free enterprise, strong defense and conservative social policies. Santorum invoked the 1976 primary election, in which he said Reagan was "considered too conservative" and "unelectable," pointing out that Reagan won 11 states in that election - the same number Santorum says he will have won if he claims victory in Illinois. Santorum compared the threat of radical Islamists today to the Soviet threat that Reagan faced as president, and criticized President Obama for cutting defense spending as he pledged to "build the strongest military on the face of the Earth." "The greatness of America, Ronald Reagan knew, is that we did say what was good and what was evil," he said. Ronald also knew we would no longer be great it we couldn't tell the difference between the two. He also took a shot at Mitt Romney by invoking Reagan's success as a communicator. "How can we nominate someone who can't summon the energy, summon the vision, summon the greatness of our country, and elevate the debate to something that is big and important and lasting," he said. Santorum was speaking to a largely supportive crowd in a town that seems the very picture of Americana. People gave away cookies and bumper stickers at a lemonade stand, the crowd sang "God Bless America" before the event, children passed around popcorn buckets collecting campaign donations. Santorum warned the crowd that small-town America is in trouble, just as it was when guess-who was elected. "Ronald Reagan stood for free markets and free economy," Santorum said. "He would be appalled looking at what has happened today," referring specifically to Obama's healthcare bill. The Reagan pitch convinced voter Joe Willwerth, a Dixon resident who said he'd been on the fence about who to vote for until hearing Santorum's speech. "He wants to get America back to the way it's supposed to be," he said. I appreciate that. There was some tension in the crowd when protesters held up signs reading "Rally to Restore Sanity," a Jon Stewart cause, and a poster that defined another meaning of Santorum's name popularized on the Internet by blogger Dan Savage. But by and large, Santorum was preaching to a supportive crowd. "Let the voice of Reagan be heard throughout this land," Santorum said, ending his speech, to cheers. Tom Durbind, 73, said he planned to support Santorum, but wanted to point out one thing about the comparisons between the two candidates. "There will never be another Ronald Reagan," he said, as a young girl walked by with a sign that read "Rick Santorum: the next George Washington."