Rick Santorum Endorses Mitt Romney

Rick Santorum told his supporters in an e-mail Monday night that he was endorsing Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential candidate and that “all hands on deck” would be needed to defeat President Obama in the fall.

Mr. Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania who dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination last month after making a strong showing in multiple states, said he met privately with Mr. Romney in Pittsburgh last Friday.

During that hour-long meeting, Mr. Santorum said that he felt a responsibility to assess Mr. Romney’s commitment to issues that are important to social conservatives and tea party supporters, among others. He said he also wanted a commitment from Mr. Romney, assuring him that there would be “appropriate representation” of conservatives in a Romney administration.

He said they also discussed the role of the family in the country’s economic success. “I was impressed with the Governor’s deep understanding of this connection and his commitment to economic policies that preserve and strengthen families,” Mr. Santorum said.

Mr. Santorum noted that he had repeatedly raised concerns during the Republican primary fight over whether Mr. Romney would take on Mr. Obama’s health care policy. However, in the e-mail, he told his supporters that he had no doubt that Mr. Romney would work with a Republican Congress to repeal it and replace it.

“Above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated,” Mr. Santorum said. “The task will not be easy. It will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. Governor Romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win this the most critical election of our lifetime.”

He closed by saying that while his conversation with Mr. Romney was productive, he intended to keep the lines of “communication open with him and his campaign.”

Despite Mr. Santorum’s praise for Mr. Romney in his endorsement, the Democratic National Committee was trying to make sure that people did not forget all the unkind things he said about his fellow Republican during the campaign that were captured on video.

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What Rick Santorum Wrought

Rick Santorum is a party crasher.

He has helped crash the Republican Party into a wall of public resentment. He suspended his campaign this week, but not before doing incalculable damage to the Republican brand and to the party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney.

For months, Santorum became the favored face of the most conservative faction of the party, the one person who gave them a viable chance at resisting Romney.

Santorum surged by dragging the debate so far to the right he couldn’t see the middle with a telescope. The base dropped all pretense of moderation or even modernity and followed Santorum down a slippery path that led to a political abyss of social regression. The rest of America watched in stunned disbelief and was left to wonder: Was this the rise of some sort of “Judeo-Christian Shariah” movement, as the political comedian Dean Obeidallah pointed out on CNN.com?

David Maxwell/European Pressphoto AgencyRick Santorum on April 3.

Instead of small government and fiscal conservatism, Santorum overwhelmingly promoted — and the public overwhelmingly focused on — his apparent obsession with sex and religion.

He argued that allowing women to use contraception to control when they got pregnant — one of the foremost decisions a woman can make about her body, her health and her and her family’s economic security — was morally wrong.

Santorum opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest, saying that women should be forced to carry those pregnancies to term and just accept the “horribly created … gift” and “make the best of a bad situation.”

Santorum not only adamantly opposed same-sex marriage, saying that he would support a constitutional amendment banning it, he went so far as to say that gay people who had legally married under the laws of their states would have their marriages rendered “invalid.”

But he didn’t stop there. Santorum expressed other outlandish, head-scratching views on many more issues that seemed to cement his position as a man out of step with a modern America.

He slammed the president’s promotion of self-improvement through higher education as snobbery although he himself has bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees.

He suggested that women might be too emotional to serve on combat missions:

I do have concerns about women in frontline combat. I think that can be a very compromising situation where — where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved.

And of course he denies climate change, calling climate science “political science,” and remarking: “The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is.”

I could go on, but it’s all just too exhausting and depressing.

At the same time, Santorum continuously chipped away at Romney as a dishonest man and a weak conservative, as well as the worst candidate to run against President Obama.

The shift in the debate, which Santorum helped create, and his withering attacks on the front-runner forced Romney to move further right than was politically prudent.

As a result, Romney is now weaker than any post-primary party nominee in recent political history. According to an analysis of CNN polling data stretching back to 1996, compiled by Zeke Miller of BuzzFeed, Romney is the only presidential nominee to emerge from the primaries with a net negative favorability rating.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll last week also painted a troublesome portrait for Romney this fall. In a head-to-head matchup, Obama beat Romney by seven points. But some of the trends among specific constituencies were even more troubling. As the Post pointed out:

If a Romney-Obama matchup were held today, registered voters would divide 51 percent for the president to 44 percent for the former Massachusetts governor. That is similar to the edge Obama held in a Post-ABC poll in February; the two were more evenly matched in March. A wide gender gap underlies the current state of the race. Romney is up eight percentage points among male voters but trails by 19 among women.

Furthermore, the newspaper noted:

In addition to his big lead among women — Obama won that demographic by 13 points in 2008 — the president is moving to secure other key elements of his winning coalition. As he did four years ago, he has overwhelming support from African-Americans — 90 percent back his re-election effort — and he has a big lead among those ages 18 to 29.

Santorum has left a wake of destruction for Romney and the Republicans that many Americans won’t soon forget.  As we turn to the general election, if Romney can’t count on electoral excitement, he must hope for electoral amnesia — and he has Santorum to thank for much of that.

(Exit Santorum, stage far, far right.)

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Santorum Goes Bowling for Votes in Chilton, Wis.

Mr. Santorum dropped in to Pla-Mor Lanes here on Sunday afternoon, his fourth visit to a bowling alley in Wisconsin, as part of what appears to be a clear effort to drive home his working-class credentials to voters.

It is a comfortable setting for Mr. Santorum, who grew up bowling with his father and even took Bowling 101 for credit at Penn State. A week ago in Sheboygan, Wis., he struck political pay dirt at the lanes after rolling three strikes in a row.

“That’s a turkey,” he explained on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” the next day. “That tells you that you’ve got someone here who can relate to the voters of Wisconsin, just like those of us in western Pennsylvania who grew up in the bowling lanes.”

Mr. Santorum’s aides said he returned home to Pennsylvania excited by his performance and rummaged for his old bowling ball. He did not bring it back on the campaign trail, but he has added a bowling alley appearance almost every day. He has hit lanes in LaCrosse, Fond du Lac and here, where he rolled 10 frames before the Twilighters Couples League took over.

“It’s really meant to be a cultural story, who Rick really is,” said John Brabender, his chief strategist. “I think every presidential candidate wants people to get a peek into their real life so they can make a value judgment.”

It hardly needs to be said how sharp the contrast is with Mr. Romney, who has sometimes seemed out of touch in trying to appeal to working-class voters and has drawn ridicule by mentioning friendships with Nascar team owners and challenging Gov. Rick Perry of Texas to a $10,000 bet. And in a state like Wisconsin, where such voters can help turn elections, the visits seem to be paying off.

“I feel a common denominator with him,” said Carrie Pritchard, a 40-year-old homemaker who watched Mr. Santorum roll an Everyman’s score of 124 here. “If anybody can come to a bowling alley and hang out with everyone, I like that a lot.”

With reporters watching his bowling last week, Mr. Santorum caused a small fuss on the Internet by jokingly telling a young man not to pick up a pink ball — “we’re not going to let you do that” — since it was meant for women.

He has another bowling alley on his calendar for Monday, the day before Wisconsin voters go to the polls. The state has a broad conservative streak that Mr. Santorum would very much like to draw on to blunt Mr. Romney’s sense of inevitability. But polls show him trailing.

Over the weekend, two of the state’s leading Republicans, Representative Paul D. Ryan and Senator Ron Johnson, added their endorsements to a growing list of conservatives nationally who have rallied behind Mr. Romney, who leads Mr. Santorum more than two to one in the delegate race, according to The Associated Press.

In an appearance on the NBC News program “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Mr. Santorum said he would withdraw from the race if Mr. Romney reached the 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination, but he dismissed the idea that it would happen soon.

“Without a doubt, if he’s at that number, we’ll step aside,” he said. “But right now, he’s not there, he’s not even close to it.”

In an interview about his bowling background, Mr. Santorum referred to the famous book about bowling as a thread in the fabric of small-town America, “Bowling Alone,” by Robert D. Putnam, a professor of history at Harvard.

“ ‘Bowling Alone’ is about the breakdown of social capital in this country,” he said. “People used to come together in leagues and groups. Bowling is a social sport. You talk and eat and drink and are together. It’s a commitment to go every week. My dad bowled in a league, and I went with him. He was a lefty. We went on league night, it was part of my childhood.”

Presidential candidates have long embraced the symbolism of the bowling alley. From Richard M. Nixon to Barack Obama, they have visited the lanes to exhibit their common touch, not always successfully. Mr. Obama, as a candidate in 2008, rolled a 37 over seven frames. Vice President George Bush, campaigning for President Ronald Reagan, was filmed slipping and stumbling down the lane.

On Sunday, Mr. Santorum’s form was far smoother, though his results were not near his campaign-trail high score. “Not a particularly strong, but a winning game,” he pronounced. He was pleased to have beaten a campaign aide, his usual foe. “I now have a 3-2 advantage, so there you go,” he said.

Those in the know say Mr. Santorum shows talent, compared with other politicians. “George W. Bush, he had decent form, and Bill Clinton bowled a lot,” said Tom Clark, commissioner of the Professional Bowlers Association. “But Mr. Santorum, he knows how to bowl. With a few tips from a professional, he would probably be a high-level bowler.”

Trip Gabriel reported from Chilton, Wis., and Nick Corasaniti from New York. Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reporting from New York.

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Santorum: I'm conservative candidate for Alabama

PELHAM, Ala. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum appealed Thursday for votes in Alabama's upcoming primary, calling the state the "heart of conservatism" and casting himself as the best fit for its voters.

During appearances in the Birmingham suburb of Pelham and earlier in Huntsville, the former Pennsylvania senator said he was the true conservative presidential candidate who would present the best contrast to Democratic President Barack Obama in November. His campaign hoped wins here and Mississippi, as well as Saturday's contest in Kansas, would push rival Newt Gingrich from the race and leave Santorum as the leading alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney.

The former Massachusetts governor is too moderate and too much like Obama, having enacted a state health care package that became the model for Obama's national overhaul, Santorum said. Rival Newt Gingrich also has backed health insurance mandates, he said.

"Why would this area of the country put forward a candidate that gives away the most important issue in this election?" Santorum said in a crowded banquet room at a civic building. With his arms spread wide, he added: "There's one option not to give it away."

"We believe in you!" a woman called from the back of the room earlier.

"Unlike President Obama, I believe in you," Santorum said to loud applause.

Santorum was waging a campaign on two fronts: to emerge over Gingrich as conservatives' preferred alternative to Romney, and to derail Romney's march toward the GOP presidential nomination. He told reporters before a late speech in Mobile that strong showings in Alabama and in Mississippi were key to that plan.

"If we can finish first or second in Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday, that will be a big win for us and hopefully get this race down to two candidates," he said.

"Then we can, again, make the case that there's one conservative who can win in every other place in this country, that has earned the right to take on Gov. Romney, one-on-one, and give conservatives a chance to coalesce around one person to able to win this nomination for the conservative cause."

Santorum and Gingrich were both campaigning hard to win Southern states that will vote in the coming days.

Gingrich has just two wins to his credit: South Carolina and his home state of Georgia. His spokesman said that Gingrich must win the next Southern contests to justify a continued campaign.

In Huntsville, Santorum drew big ovations from hundreds gathered at a state-owned museum with calls for increased federal spending on defense and space programs and less spending on social welfare programs.

Standing under a Saturn V rocket hanging from the roof of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, he recalled watching the moon landing as a child. He also praised Huntsville's importance to the Apollo missions and NASA in general.

"As an American, I want to say thank you, Huntsville," Santorum said. "Thank you for the work you've done."

Forty-seven Republican convention delegates are at stake in Alabama's Republican primary on Tuesday. Romney visits Alabama on Friday. Gingrich visited earlier in the week, including a stop at the space museum.

Decatur resident Robert Couey, who attended both space center events, said Thursday that he doesn't support Romney and contended that Romney isn't conservative enough. Couey said he likes Santorum, adding that he thinks Gingrich has been inconsistent on issues.

"He speaks with conviction," Couey said of Santorum. "Gingrich is intelligent. He has the background but look at ... all the things he's said."

Huntsville resident Gay Nyberg said she is down to deciding between Santorum and Gingrich. Romney, she said, isn't for her.

"I think the other guy is not a true conservative," she said, "and I don't know that I can trust him to represent me."

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Mobile, Ala., contributed to this report.

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Santorum Says Campaign is 'Burning Through Our Savings'; SuperPAC Spends in South

PELHAM, Alabama-Rick Santorum asked the Alabama crowd here to deliver him a win in this state Tuesday and pitched to them he's a better choice than either of his opponents because of his working class background and blue collar roots.

"I've basically given up all my sources of income almost a year ago. We're burning through our savings," Santorum said to the enthusiastic crowd at a conference center. "People say, 'Well did you ever think you'd get this long and have to worry about all the bills you'd have to pay? Well, I was praying I'd get this long, now I have to pray we can somehow or another stretch the budget a little bit more."

He continued the theme of a candidate who is more in touch with his supporters and the electorate because he doesn't have the fortune of his opponents or other politicians. "We need a candidate who can go out and deliver a message when it comes to energy who maybe doesn't own oil wells, but his grandfather was a coal miner so I was in the energy industry too," Santorum said to the crowd of about 200. It wasn't clear who he was referring to whether it be former President George W. Bush, whose family was in the oil business or just trying to portray himself as the hardscrabble underdog to Mitt Romney's wealth. The campaign did not return requests for clarification. According to his tax returns, Santorum made about one million dollars last year.

Despite the former Pennsylvania senator's need for Newt Gingrich to abandon his bid-an aide to the former House Speaker said this week Mississippi and Alabama were must wins-he hardly mentioned Gingrich and focused almost completely on President Barack Obama and Romney.

He told voters they need a nominee "who can go out in the general election and not just spend millions and millions of dollars trying to beat up the other person" and even insinuated the press favored the former Massachusetts governor because he will not be able to defeat Obama.

"Every time we've nominated a moderate in the last 30 or 40 years, we lost. Every time so now you know why the media's for him," Santorum said, referring to Romney. "They don't want him to win. You know who they want to win."

Santorum's superPAC "The Red, White, and Blue Fund" announced Thursday they were running a negative ad jabbing both Romney and Gingrich in Mississippi and Alabama. They also called for Gingrich to get out of the race Wednesday to try and consolidate the more conservative electorate around one of the GOP candidates. The fund says the ad buy is "well over half a million dollars."

If Santorum beats Gingrich here and in Mississippi it could very well be a fatal blow to the speaker's candidacy, although Gingrich has stressed he is going all the way to the convention. "If you elect, here in Alabama, and I'll tell you what, a conservative will be nominated by the Republican party in the next few months. And if a conservative is nominated, we will win the general election," Santorum said.

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Deal not sealed, Romney hits Santorum with big ad buys

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's presidential campaign would like to be focusing its attacks on Democratic President Barack Obama around now.

But after failing to seize control of the Republican nomination race on "Super Tuesday," Romney cannot shake off rival Rick Santorum, whom he criticized on Thursday as a political insider.

Opening up a new front against Santorum, the Romney campaign accused him of being a lobbyist in his home state of Pennsylvania even before he went to Washington in 1991.

Romney's campaign also attacked Santorum for holding regular meetings with lobbyists as a Senate leader, part of the Republican "K Street Project" seeking to increase the party's influence in the capital.

"Senator Santorum's claims to be a Washington outsider are at odds with the facts. After serving as a lobbyist in Pennsylvania before running for Congress, Santorum became a go-to guy for D.C. lobbyists while he served in the Senate," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement headlined: "Lobbyist/Congressman/Senator Rick Santorum: The Insider's Insider."

With an appeal to evangelicals and conservatives that Romney often lacks, Santorum is challenging the idea his rival is the inevitable Republican nominee to face Obama in November's election.

Santorum could pick up support in a series of primary fights this month in the kind of strongly Republican states where the former Massachusetts governor has had little success so far.

To help fend off the challenge, the Super PAC outside spending group that supports Romney - by far the biggest fundraiser in the Republican field - has been pouring millions of dollars into anti-Santorum advertising.

Conservative Kansas, where Santorum is the favorite, holds its caucuses on Saturday. Alabama and Mississippi, two Southern states where evangelical Christians are a big voting bloc, have primaries on Tuesday.

Romney would dearly like to win in any of those strongly Republican states, after securing most of his primary and caucus victories to date in states that supported Obama in the 2008 election. On Thursday, Romney picked up the endorsement of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.

AD BUYS

Restore our Future, the Super PAC supporting Romney, has been on the air in Alabama and Mississippi with anti-Santorum ads for days, spending nearly $3 million.

The group is already buying $1.4 million in advertisements in two states that do not vote for weeks. Restore our Future spent more than $909,000 in Illinois, which holds its primary on March 20, and more than $431,000 in Louisiana, where the primary is March 24.

A pro-Santorum Super PAC, called the Red, White and Blue Fund, retaliated by spending $500,000 to air ads attacking Romney in Alabama and Mississippi.

Santorum spent Thursday campaigning in Alabama, where he called for a strong defense at a state-owned space museum.

Romney campaigned in Mississippi, where during a stop in Pascagoula, he said longtime aide Garrett Jackson, a graduate of the University of Mississippi, had been instructing him on the ways of the South. "I'm learning to say ya'll, I like grits," Romney said.

Also campaigning in Mississippi was Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives from Georgia.

Now running third in national polls, Gingrich canceled campaign stops in Kansas to stake his campaign on strong performances in Southern contests near his home state. He has refused to heed calls to leave the nomination race.

Romney won six of the 10 states up for grabs in this week's "Super Tuesday" races, but Santorum won three and Gingrich captured one, keeping alive both their hopes and the likelihood the nomination race will continue for months.

(Additional reporting by Alina Selyukh, Alexander Cohen and Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Ron Paul, Rick Santorum to Make Missouri Campaign Stops

The Missouri GOP caucus will be held Saturday, March 17. Locations in all of Missouri's 114 counties will hold caucus meetings in the mid-morning or early afternoon. Ahead of those caucuses, two of the four mainstream Republican candidates for president will make campaign stops in Missouri. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and Rick Santorum will be campaigning in the Show-Me State on the same day as Kansas holds its caucus meetings March 10.

Here's a breakdown of when and where the candidates will be.

Ron Paul

Paul will start out in St. Charles, Mo., at Hyland Arena on the campus of Lindenwood University at 3 p.m. March 10. Admission is free and is on a first-come, first-served basis. Expect Paul to be there for about an hour. KMOX reports Paul spoke in Kansas City in February and this will be his second stop in Missouri.

The candidate then travels about 200 miles to the southwest for a stop in Springfield, Mo., at a town hall meeting at the Hillcrest High School gymnasium at 7:30 p.m. The Springfield News-Leader states Paul will speak for about 15 minutes and then have a 15-minute question and answer session with the public. After he speaks to those in attendance, Paul will be available for the media for about 15 minutes.

Rick Santorum

Santorum will also make two stops in Missouri March 10. At 2 p.m., Santorum will hold a rally at Digital Monitoring Products at the Partnership Industrial Center in northeast Springfield. Digital Monitoring Products has been headquartered in Springfield for 35 years and specializes in manufacturing central security monitoring devices.

Later in the day, Santorum will go to Cape Girardeau, Mo., at 6:30 as the keynote speaker of the Cape Girardeau County Lincoln Day banquet hosted by the local Republican Party. Tickets are $20 for the event if you want to attend. At 8 p.m., Santorum will hold a rally at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

Venues

Paul's rally at Hyland Arena is on the campus of Lindenwood University. The basketball venue is capable of seating 3,000 people in seats around the floor. When Paul comes to Springfield, he will be at Hillcrest High School located on Grant Avenue just north of Kearney Street in Springfield.

Santorum will speak at Digital Monitoring Products, a factory in northeast Springfield off Kearney and U.S. 65. In Cape Girardeau, the Plaza Conference Center is capable of hosting 750 people at a banquet-style event. The airport in Cape Girardeau is located on Rush H. Limbaugh Jr. Memorial Dr. just west of Interstate 55 to the northwest of the city.

William Browning, a lifelong Missouri resident, writes about local and state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Born in St. Louis, Browning earned his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri. He currently resides in Branson.

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Santorum Says Romney GOP's 'Weakest Candidate' -- but He's Not

COMMENTARY | Just before Super Tuesday, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told Ohioans that his chief rival, Mitt Romney, was the Republican Party's "weakest candidate" to oppose President Barack Obama in November, offering himself as a more optimal choice. Citing Romney's association with Massachusetts health care, the supposed blueprint for the much-maligned national health care system ("Obamacare"), Santorum said it would hurt Romney's chances of winning.

But Santorum could be wrong...

"He would be the weakest candidate we could possibly put forward on the most important issue of today," the former Pennsylvania senator asserted, according to CNN, the "important issue" being health care.

Santorum supported his comments with a 2009 USA Today op-ed piece written by Romney himself, where he called on Obama to get ideas on how to better construct the national health care legislation. He said that the former Massachusetts governor was going to have a difficult time avoiding and/or defending against questions about the plans' similarities if he won the Republican nomination.

But therein might lay the strength in Romney's position. Instead of avoiding or defending, perhaps embracing the issue and simply pointing out the differences in the two health care plans could prove beneficial to his campaign. Instead of taking the stance that the health care system in Massachusetts and the national system proposed by the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 are so different, Romney could point out what should be dispensed with nationally and what, if anything, could be enhanced or replaced.

Because: Not everyone is opposed to the Health Care provisions. In fact, a Pew Research poll released in November revealed that 38 percent of Americans wanted the legislation repealed, while 31 percent want it expanded. Another 22 percent believed it should be left as is.

Although Romney would be certain to take some hits from the party die-hards (especially Tea Party movement members), a stance that merely defends the Massachusetts plan and points out the weaknesses of "Obamacare" would more likely find traction among independent voters and conservative Democrats, appealing to far more Americans than the avid repeal message being sent by Santorum. He is also less likely to alienate most Republicans in this fashion, many of whom will vote for him simply because he is the GOP candidate.

"Weakest" candidate because of health care? Hardly. Santorum should worry that more Republicans, regardless of their personal positions, don't see it as an electable strength.

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Santorum says he feels no pressure to quit race (AP)

WASHINGTON – Rick Santorum says he's under no pressure to quit the GOP presidential race so conservative voters can coalesce around Newt Gingrich.

The former Pennsylvania senator tells CNN's "State of the Union" that his campaign is building momentum even after a third-place finish in South Carolina. He says he expects to run well in Florida's Jan. 31 primary.

Santorum says the suggestion that conservatives will have to coalesce to beat former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is "objectively false."

Santorum points out that he beat Romney in Iowa and says Gingrich "smoked him here in South Carolina."

Santorum says that while Romney has more campaign money, he has the better ideas and message to inspire voters.

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Santorum opens Primary Day in NH with media blitz (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he'll be pleased if he finishes in the middle of the pack in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, but adds that he "might sneak up on some people."

The former Pennsylvania senator tells Fox News Channel a third-, fourth- or fifth-place finish would be proof that he's "climbed up and reached the pack." And he says he's proud he did it "without spending a dime on broadcast TV" ads in New Hampshire.

Instead of buying airtime, Santorum was spending the morning of primary day giving interviews to cable TV and radio programs. After the media blitz, he was planning to visit polling places for some last-minute, face-to-face campaigning.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is hoping to emerge as the leading conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney after the wrap-up of voting in New Hampshire.

The former Pennsylvania senator is preparing for a busy day of visits to polling places and non-stop media interviews Tuesday. He hasn't bought advertising in the state and is instead relying on a constant stream of TV appearances to put himself before voters. He was slated for appearances on cable programs and radio shows before visiting polling places to do some last-minute, face-to-face campaigning.

"We're not asking much. Our founders gave their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor," Santorum said at a primary eve rally. "I'm asking you for 24 hours of effort to pull off a huge surprise here in New Hampshire to give us the boost to show that the momentum is continuing so we can go down to South Carolina, kick a little butt down in South Carolina, go down to Florida and keep kicking until we have a strong, principled conservative in the model of Ronald Reagan."

Santorum said Republicans don't have to settle for someone who doesn't share their values.

"We're going to vote for the real conservative because we know the real conservative can win this race and change this country," he said.

Santorum's fundraising didn't pick up until after his strong second-place finish in Iowa, and his advisers decided against spending money here on the air. In Iowa, he spent just $30,000 on ads to finish just eight votes behind the former Massachusetts governor.

"Given the fact that we're not running any media up here and that we've really only spent five days in the last month here, second place would be a dream come true," Santorum said Monday, looking to manage expectations.

The key, he said, was emerging as "the strong alternative to Gov. Romney and continuing to build off that momentum."

Late Monday, Santorum sharpened his criticism of Romney and urged voters not to settle on the former Massachusetts governor simply because "it is his time." He cited other candidates who captured the GOP's nomination only to lose: Gerald Ford, Bob Dole and John McCain. They have been described as moderates by many in the more conservative wing of the party.

"We win elections when our people are excited about who to vote for," Santorum said.

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Rick Santorum Another Republican Out of Touch with Reality (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum may be the newest flavor in the Republican of the Month contest after Iowa voters finally got to weigh in their votes on Tuesday, finishing just eight votes behind Mitt Romney, but one thing is certain: Santorum is clearly out of touch with reality with the majority of Americans, including the dire state of the economy, health care and employment.

The former senator apparently is so out of touch that he apparently believes African-Americans are the only citizens on welfare in our country.

According to the New York Daily News, while Santorum was at an Iowa campaign stop on Sunday, January 1, he told his supporters, "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

As you can imagine, the NAACP is up in arms about his remark, and as well they should be. We all should be. Santorum hasn't apologized for the remark. He's decided to go another route and deny he made the comment at all, but he can clearly be heard on a CNN video making the controversial statement.

Not only is it an unfair stereotype, it isn't even accurate by a long shot. Federal benefits are not determined by race, but by income. In Iowa, only nine percent of welfare recipients are black. 84 percent are white.

Santorum also goes on during his speech Sunday to explain why four in ten children of Iowa are on Medicaid. It isn't because they need health care. The former Senator says it's because President Obama wants their vote. Somehow I think that's a pretty far stretch from the truth. If you ask parents of these children if they signed their children up for Medicaid for any other reason assure they have access to healthcare, they would likely find his statement laughable.

Does Santorum and the other GOP candidates realize the U.S. is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system? The reason that many children as well as adults do not have health care insurance is because their employment benefits ended after a job loss or change and many employers do not offer benefits at all. To say that Obama wants to provide health care for children just because he wants the vote, is a sad attack on the truth.

Santorum will likely dive to the bottom of the GOP candidate pool soon enough, and there should be an outcry against not only his racially prejudiced comments, but his unrealistic view of American society.

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Santorum shrugs off report of Iowa vote errors (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum shrugged off reports late Thursday that the vote count from Iowa's caucuses might be wrong, saying the errors appear not to change the fact that he and Mitt Romney were nearly tied.

Santorum told Fox News that Iowa's Republican Party chairman, Matt Strawn, informed him of two cases in which errors were reported in the count from Tuesday night. Taken together, Santorum said, the changes would almost cancel out each other and that Romney would win by nine votes instead of eight.

"That doesn't really matter to me," he said. "This was a tie."

Strawn said in a statement that party officials would not respond to "every rumor, innuendo or allegation" as it certifies results during a two-week certification process. Romney and Santorum each had just over 30,000 votes out of more than 122,000 votes cast.

Strawn said state party officials had been in contact with GOP officials in Appanoose County but that officials "do not have any reason to believe the final, certified results of Appanoose County will change the outcome of Tuesday's vote."

Des Moines TV station KCCI reported that a Ron Paul backer attending his first precinct caucuses in Appanoose County, in southern Iowa, said the vote from his precinct was inaccurately reported and gave Romney 20 more votes than he actually received.

The Paul supporter, Edward True of Moulton, told The Associated Press that he helped count the ballots cast at his precinct caucuses and that Romney received two votes. True said he was shocked to see the official results on the Republican Party website showed Romney with 22 votes in the precinct.

"I assume somebody made a typographical error," he said in a telephone interview.

True said that when he contacted local Republican officials, "They said they would sort it out in the next couple of weeks, but how many primaries will have happened by that time?"

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Santorum comes under closer scrutiny in New Hampshire (Reuters)

MANCHESTER/NORTHFIELD, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican presidential upstart Rick Santorum found himself under increasing scrutiny on Thursday as front-runner Mitt Romney tried to chip away at his credibility ahead of the key New Hampshire primary.

Santorum's surge in Iowa, which held its nominating contest on Tuesday, was so quick that his record as a U.S. senator and strong conservative views against abortion and gay marriage escaped close attention from his 2012 presidential rivals and the media.

His entry into New Hampshire was rocky. College students booed him at New England College over his position against gay marriage and he was forced to explain a remark he made in Iowa that appeared to single out blacks as recipients of federal assistance.

A Suffolk University tracking poll showed Romney on cruise control in New Hampshire ahead of its primary next Tuesday but that Santorum had risen to a distant third. It gave Romney 41 percent support, Ron Paul 18 percent and Santorum 8 percent, and Romney spent the day campaigning in South Carolina.

After finishing a close second to Romney in Iowa and bursting into the limelight, Santorum is under the microscope, drawing fire from Senator John McCain, a Romney supporter who clashed often with Santorum over government spending when they were Senate colleagues.

McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, is a sharp critic of spending items called earmarks that typically escape the scrutiny that accompanies U.S. budget legislation, to the dismay of conservatives.

"He was an avid earmarker and a staunch defender of porkbarrel spending," McCain told Reuters. "I just don't think he can portray himself as a fiscal conservative. We all know that earmarking is a 'gateway drug' to corruption."

Santorum's efforts to obtain taxpayer funds for spending projects for his home state of Pennsylvania have long been an issue. McCain specifically cited the $500,000 that Santorum engineered for a polar bear exhibit at the Pittsburgh zoo as an example of wasteful spending.

"The polar bears are living well," McCain said wryly. "That's the good news."

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Santorum has fought back against accusations of profligate spending, saying he wanted to make sure his taxpayers got their "fair share" of money back. He says he will fight for deep spending cuts if elected next November.

Santorum is hoping to recreate his Iowa magic in New Hampshire, which holds the second contest to determine a Republican challenger to Democratic President Barack Obama.

He wants to finish strong enough to generate momentum going into South Carolina, where a conservative like him has a better chance.

"Obviously Mitt Romney is at 40 percent in the polls, the chances in five days to make up a 35 or 40 point lead is going to be pretty limited but we expect to make a run and to move up in those polls," Santorum told reporters in Manchester.

The NAACP civil rights organization complained about a remark Santorum made in Iowa in which he appeared to say, "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money."

Santorum insisted to Fox News that he had "blurred" the word and did not actually say blacks.

"Senator Santorum's targeting of African Americans is inaccurate and outrageous, and lifts up old race-based stereotypes about public assistance," NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said.

Romney's big lead gives him great expectations in New Hampshire, perhaps more than he can reasonably expect to fulfill in a state that is unpredictable and can provide crucial momentum to the second-place finisher.

McCain said he believed the race will tighten in New Hampshire and doubted Romney will end up with 40 percent support or more.

"It's important for the Romney campaign and all of us who are supporting him not to raise expectations," said McCain, who surprised George W. Bush here in 2000. "So much of this is the expectations game. I think he'll win New Hampshire well but I can't imagine any candidate winning with 43 percent of the vote."

Keeping Obama in their sights, the Republicans blasted Obama for bypassing Congress to fill politically sensitive posts.

Obama upset Republicans by making four recess appointments - naming Richard Cordray to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Board and filling three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board.

Ron Paul called Obama's move a clear disregard of the U.S. Constitution.

"The president must be called to account for his actions," Paul said in a statement, adding that Congress may need to take action to rein in Obama's "flagrant contempt" for the rules.

(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny and Scott Malone)

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Santorum Joins Bachmann, Pledges to Ban Porn, Same-Sex Marriages (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Rick Santorum is always good for a laugh or ten. The fact that he's a former senator who lost his last time out and wants to be seriously considered as a viable GOP candidate may be the biggest laugh-fest he's given America yet, but the joke is mainly on himself (even though it probably wasn't meant to be self-deprecating).

Still, he seems to try and best his most ridiculous acts and statements every time he gets a chance, and this time he has, along with that other Republican merry prankster Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a person who actually won her last political contest, signed a "Marriage Vow," a document that not only calls for defining marriage with a Constitutional amendment denying same-sex marriages but also calls for a ban on all pornography.

Good luck with the latter.

"When I first read it, I was taken aback by it," Santorum told Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union."

"But I understand why they're saying it," he continued, "because it does undermine people's respect for the institution, respect for the people governing this country. If you can't be faithful to the people that you're closest to, then how can we count on you to be faithful to those of us who you represent?"

The Family Leader, a conservative Christian organization based in Iowa, wants all the GOP candidates to sign their pledge, entitled "The Marriage Vow -- A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family." The vow asks candidates to affirm a pro-marriage stance, oppose same-sex unions, defines homosexuality as a "choice" (stating there is no empirical scientific proof that being gay is genetic), and notes that marriage is undermined by adulterous factors like quickie divorces and pornography.

"If you are looking at being at a leader of our great country, we would like to have you pledge personal fidelity to your own spouse and a respect for the marital bonds of others," Vander Plaats told the Des Moines Register.

If one might be thinking that the pledge might be a stab at the Democrats, what with the Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., scandal just completed and the always within reach call-back to the President Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky White House scandal, it must be pointed out that the pledge could be a protectionist measure as well. In the past few years, several Republicans, such as Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who was considered a future presidential contender, and Rep. Chris Lee, R-N.Y., both resigned over fidelity issues.

Of course Weiner, Ensign, and Lee all now have about as much chance of becoming president as does Santorum, but at least he doesn't mind signing pledges that sound divisive and accomplish nothing. Or maybe something.

Remember, this is the guy who once said: "I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts." He made the comment just before acknowledging that he disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling that individuals have a right to privacy and that such matters should be democratically controlled.

Funny thing: Iowa already is a same-sex marriage state, allowing homosexual unions. But, as many who paid attention in civics and history classes know, a Constitutional amendment would trump a state's law, either enhancing or nullifying it. Since defining marriage as a purely heterosexual union is the aim of the pledge, enhancement is a moot point. However, keeping the amendment away from abridging other freedoms protected in the Constitution might be a problem.

And pornography? A federal law or amendment banning pornography could become a problem in an industry that is disseminated in hard copy formats and on the Internet (not to mention via phones). But these guys, Bachmann and Santorum, are free-market Republicans, correct? A ban on porn would facilitate the emergence of an illegal underground industry (considering the 40 million Americans access porn sites regularly). It is already a multi-billion-dollar per year industry (and that's just on the Internet). Perhaps a return to the days of Prohibition (just substitute sex for alcohol) might be necessary for the government to begin regulating the adult industries (which are already regulated -- but aren't Republicans against most governmental regulating of businesses?). Besides, banning pornography for these guys would be simple. Unlike many who use pornography as a sexual stimulant and relationship enhancer, Bachmann and Santorum obviously do not need such in their lives, having eleven children between them in their respective marriages.

At least taking a second vow of marital fidelity might not have been a waste of time (if one assumes, just for laughs, that either of these two will ever become president). Besides, fidelity has always been the measure of a great leader. One great example is the Bible's own King Solomon, who is reported to have had hundreds of wives and concubines, to all of whom he was probably faithful (maybe, most likely... it was a long time ago, so who really knows?). But the "Marriage Vow" equates bigamy and polygamy to homosexuality, which Santorum and Bachmann would like to restrict -- or so they've pledged. Maybe the ruler considered to be among the wisest of all time was not a great example. Perhaps a better example would have been King David...

Funny how there seems to be a lot of reconciling that has to be done with regard to that pledge.

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LAST TICKET: Glenn Beck makes Rick Santorum uncomfortable, Romney to London, Pawlenty beefs up media buy in Iowa… (The Ticket)

Here are the stories we took note of today but didn't give the full blog treatment:

• Days after House Speaker John Boehner played a round of golf with President Obama, GOP Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said the president should "get off the golf course." (Bloomberg News)

• Mitt Romney is heading to London to raise cash from expats. (CBS News)

• Glenn Beck to Rick Santorum while shaking hands on camera: "I could kiss you in the mouth!" (Mediaite)

• Tim Pawlenty buys $14,000 of radio time in Iowa on top of a $50,000 TV ad campaign. (Ben Smith)

• Romney channels Margaret Thatcher. (Slate)

• Sarah Palin's move "The Undefeated" premieres in Iowa next week. (Des Moines Register)

• Herman Cain continues to endear himself to the press. (The Note)

• Van Jones launches a "liberal tea party." (The Fix)

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Santorum Becomes Republican Long Shot in Presidential Primary (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | You know the old saying: "Timing is everything." Well, Rick Santorum doesn't. Having scheduled his "official announcement" to join the growing 2012 pack of GOP candidates to take place at 11 a.m. Monday, Rick jumped the gun in an interview with George Stephanapolous on Good Morning America and declared his candidacy four hours early.

"We're ready to announce that we're going to be in this race," Santorum said grinning, pointing a thumb over his shoulder to the Somerset County courthouse behind him. "We're in it to win and we're very excited about, you know, what the ... what the future holds. We've got a great, uh, a great team in the early primary states. We've got a lot of momentum." With his repeated use of the word "we," the people-vacant steps of the Pennsylvania courthouse served as an extremely awkward backdrop.

With his bid for the presidency, one of Santorum's self-placed obstacles may be his well-documented inability to keep his opinionated mouth shut.

With a recent Gallup poll revealing the majority of Americans support gay marriage, Santorum's repeated gay-bashing statements, like comparing homosexuality to bestiality, may not be well-received. Additionally, his callous statement that John McCain, "doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works," according to Outside the Beltway, may also come back to haunt him. Because of everything Rick Santorum has "read" about enhanced interrogation techniques, he believes himself to be a greater authority on the subject than McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a POW.

Santorum's uber-enthusiastic intent to revamp Social Security will be a major stumbling block.

The former Pennsylvania senator believes voters want someone who stands for what he believes in, like his radical belief that Social Security would be better off with fewer abortions, according to the Associated Press. Furthermore, Santorum accused Rep. Paul Ryan of not having the "temerity to step forward and say we have to do Social Security," and thinks it's a good idea to apply cuts earlier than Ryan proposed. Gallup reveals Americans overwhelmingly disagree.

Santorum's lack of originality is also embarrassing. During his ill-attended announcement rally in Pennsylvania, the Obama fainting fan moment reported by NBC came across as a bit ridiculous. He even pulled the Obama water bottle toss documented many times over by the Wall Street Journal.

Santorum thinks his hard-right positions will give him an edge against the ultra-liberal Obama in 2012. What the candidate seems to forget is that his extreme right positions -- and frequently offensive presentation thereof -- are what caused him to lose re-election to the Senate in 2006.

Romney has borrowed Sen. John Kerry's old "Believe in America" slogan. Obama and Gingrich are sharing "winning the future," (AKA- "WTF?"). With his own inability to conjure an original thought, Santorum is dusting off the single word once used by CBS News anchor Dan Rather before humiliating himself out of a career: "Courage."

Considering Santorum's radical ideas, low position in most polls and low name recognition as a presidential candidate, he's going to need it.

Sources:

George Stephanapolous , "Exclusive '" Rick Santorum Will Run for President: 'We're In It to Win'", ABC News

"Santorum Quotations", Spreading Santorum.com

"For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage", Gallup

Doug Mataconis, "Rick Santorum: John McCain "Doesn't Understand" Torture", Outside the Beltway

John S. McCain, "John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account", US News

Associated Press, "Rick Santorum: Social Security fund would be OK if there were fewer abortions", PennLive.com

"Americans Oppose Cuts in Education, Social Security, Defense", Gallup

"Santorum kicks off 2012 bid in Pennsylvania", NBC

James Taranto, "We Shall Be Overcome" Wall Street Journal

"Pennsylvania Voters Reject Politics of Fear and Intolerance", Log Cabin Republicans

Paul Steinhauser, "Santorum to announce candidacy for president", CNN

"Romney's Positive Intensity Up; Santorum's Name ID Still Low" Gallup

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