Rick+Santorum

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**Richard John "Rick" Santorum** - Elizabeth Martin & Miranda Otis


 * Biography: **
 * Born on May 10, 1958 in Winchester, VA
 * Parents: Aldo and Catherine Santorum
 * Devout Catholic
 * Attended the Roman Catholic Carmel High School in Mundelein, IL for one year and graduated in 1976
 * Graduated from Pennsylvania University with a B.A. with honors in Political Science in 1980
 * Received a M.B.A from the University of Pittsburg in 1981
 * Later received a J.D. with honors from Dickinson School of Law in 1986
 * Married to Karen Santorum, a former nurse who now home-schools all 7 children
 * Rick and Karen have 8 children (only 7 living) - Elizabeth, Richard, Daniel, Sarah, Peter, Patrick & Isabella
 * Gabriel died in 1996

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 * Political Career: **
 * 1990: (age 32) was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">1995-2007: Served in the U.S. Senate representing Pennsylvania
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">2006: Loses the Senate re-elect [[image:msannbaldwin/6a00d8341c630a53ef01538de78ec6970b-800wi.jpg height="195" align="right"]]
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">June 6, 2011: Announces his 2012 run for President


 * <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Platform: **
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">Pro-life
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">Against same-sex marriage
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">Against gun control
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">For border patrol



<span style="background-color: #a57f1d; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">26.0 ||= <span style="background-color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Gingrich <span style="background-color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">14.7 ||= <span style="background-color: #e58a3e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Paul <span style="background-color: #e58a3e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">12.3 ||= <span style="background-color: #b5179a; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Romney <span style="background-color: #b5179a; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">38.7 ||
 * = <span style="background-color: #a57f1d; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Santorum

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">** Santorum Admits to Smoking Marijuana During College: ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">//For example, I smoked pot when I was in college. Does that mean that I can’t talk about <span class="IL_AD" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">drug use? Does that mean that I can’t talk about how that’s a bad thing? Of <span class="IL_AD" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">course not. You learn from those experiences.”//
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">-Miranda Otis 1/25/12 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">//Even during that time, I knew that what I was doing was wrong. But just because I failed, that does not mean that I shouldn’t be able to talk about it. That’s a different issue. It’s not hypocrisy, as <span class="IL_AD" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">long as you don’t say, ‘I thought it was right, and now think it was wrong.’ If you knew what was going on, and most people do, you have moments of weakness. It happens to all of us. But that should not deter people from talking about what they believe is right.”// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">March 11, 2011, National <span class="IL_AD" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">Review, Santorum: Let Newt Make His So-Con Case

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">Santorum repeated his comments half a year later, this time to Piers Morgan on CNN.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">//“Well, yeah, I admitted <span class="IL_AD" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">you know, back when I was running for the Senate, that when I was in college that I smoked pot and that was something that I did when I was in college. It was something that I’m not proud of, but I did. And said it was something that I wish I hadn’t done. But I did and I admitted it. I would encourage people not to do so. It was not all it’s made up to be.”// []

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">This weekend, Rick Santorum left the campaign trail to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Isabella, who was hospitalized with pneumonia. Fortunately, Bella made what Santorum called "a miraculous turnaround," and the former Pennsylvania senator resumed his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination on Monday. However, Bella's condition remains a constant point of worry for the Santorum family. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bella has Trisomy 18, a genetic disorder that gives her an extra copy of the 18th chromosome. According to the Trisomy 18 Foundation, the extra chromosome can cause life-threatening abnormalities in the heart, brain, stomach and other internal organs. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">There is a very high mortality rate for infants born with the disorder -- about 50 percent of babies carried to term are stillborn, and less than 10 percent will reach their first birthday. Females are about five times more likely than males to be live-born. A small number of individuals (mostly women) with Trisomy 18 have reached their 20s and 30s. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Robert Marion, chief of genetics and developmental medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center's Children's Hospital in New York told the //Washington Post// that Trisomy 18 is "almost always diagnosed prenatally, and those pregnancies are almost always terminated." <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Many children like Bella have congenital heart defects as a result of the disorder, meaning it is much more difficult for her heart to pump blood to the rest of her body. This can cause fluid to back up, and leave her more susceptible to infections like pneumonia. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">ABC News reported Sunday evening that Santorum addressed Bella's hospitalization in a tele-townhall with Minnesota voters. "I know how she got through it," he said. "It was with the hands of these doctors and the prayers that guided those hands." <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Santorum, who has said his daughter's condition has led to her life being "measured in days and weeks," has addressed the conflict of having a seriously ill daughter at home while he campaigns across the country. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In December, ABC's Christiane Amanpour asked the former senator how he can justify leaving Bella while he campaigns, given his low poll numbers. "Well, I don't worry about the polls," he said. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">"I worry about what I'm trying to do to be the best father and the best husband I can be. And obviously a big part of that is making sure that we have a country that respects her life, and a country that is free and safe and prosperous for all of my children."
 * <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Trisomy 18: Rick Santorum's Daughter Isabella's Genetic Disorder: <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">- Miranda Otis 2/2/12 **

**<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Santorum Talks about His Daughter Bella <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">- Elizabeth Martin 2/2/2012 ** media type="youtube" key="U6NJvxzTI3Q" height="315" width="560"

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">**<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rick Santorum to Voters: "I need your help" by Sade Malloy <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Elizabeth Martin 2/2/2012 ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- As the GOP race heats up, Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum pushes for the Colorado vote. Santorum spent all day Wednesday campaigning throughout the state, making stops in Woodland Park and Colorado Springs. It was standing room only as Santorum spoke with hundreds of supporters in Woodland Park. The two-hour event included a meet-and-great and questions from the audience. One supporter asked, "If we can help get you elected as president, can and will you do something to reduce the scope of our government?" More on the GOP race Romney wins Florida Gingrich flubs history in debate Ron Paul visits Colorado The size of the federal government was a concern for a number of people in the crowd. Santorum explained that besides cutting spending, he would also shrink the feds by reforming entitlement programs and getting rid of some of them. "We're going to spend less money with the federal government next year than we did this year, and less what we did the year before," R ick Santorum said. The Republican nominee went on to say he didn't agree with the government interfering with Wall Street and the bailouts for businesses "too big to fail." "We're going to come and spend almost a trillion dollars to bail out people who make billions all on the backs of people who are unsuspecting homeowners," S antorum said. The two-hour face-to-face with Colorado voters gave Santorum a chance to tell them he has no doubt he will win the race, but he needs help. "I think the people of Colorado have an opportunity to shake this race up and launch someone whose values are consistent with people of this country and Colorado which believe in free people, free markets and bottom up instead of top down regulation," S antorum said. Rick Santorum's last stop was at a rally at Mr. Biggs Wednesday night. It was originally going to be in downtown Colorado Springs, but because of the larger-than-expected turnout in Woodland Park, it was moved to a larger venue.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">**<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rick Santorum Picks up Sharron Angle Endorsement <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">-Miranda Otis 2/2/2012 ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Failed U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle, a Tea Party-backed Republican hopeful defeated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2010, on Wednesday announced that she will support Rick Santorum for the GOP presidential nomination.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">She made the announcement in a statement provided to National Review.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Rick Santorum and I have known each other for years. He is a strong fiscal and social conservative who stands on principles above politics," she said. "He has never wavered in his support for family values understanding the impact that strong families have on a prosperous economy. His continuous opposition to Amnesty, Obamacare, the bail-outs, and cap and trade are a perfect fit with our main street Tea Party movement."

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In a response, Santorum called Angle "a fighter" who remains true to her values.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">"I am thrilled to receive her endorsement and I am confident it will be a terrific boon to our campaign as the Nevada Caucus approaches," he said.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Angle's 2010 loss to Reid became indicative of a rift in the GOP driven by the selection of a crop of Tea Party-influenced candidates that some in the party believed were unviable.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">These tensions flared memorably last year when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appeared to refer to them as delusional "tea party hobbits" living a fantasy with their idealism on issues such as raising the debt ceiling.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Angle shot back with " A statement from a 'Tea Party hobbit ,'" reminding McCain how the "Lord of the Rings" played out.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Ironically, this man campaigned for Tea Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O'Donnell and I into the harbor with Sarah Palin," she wrote. "As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land. This Lord of the TARP actually ought to read to the end of the story and join forces with the Tea Party, not criticize it."

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Earlier this week, Angle encouraged Gingrich to have the "courage to continue despite the onslaught," but now it looks like she'll be channeling whatever Tea Party clout she has to Santorum in hopes that he can chip away at Mitt Romney's large lead in Nevada.

= <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Rick Santorum challenges Michigan to be 'game-changer' <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 60%;">- Elizabeth Martin 2/17/2012 = Reporting from Novi, Mich.— Taking his presidential candidacy into the Michigan county where his main rival, [|Mitt Romney], grew up, [|Rick Santorum] attempted Thursday night to weld an emotional link between the capital of America's auto industry and his own blue-collar roots in the steel country of western Pennsylvania. Santorum, who leads Romney in several recent Michigan polls, received an enthusiastic reception from 1,300 [|Republicans] at the Oakland County Lincoln Day fundraising dinner at a cavernous hall in suburban Detroit. "I come from steel country. We feel that same pride about what we did to forge a great and powerful nation. And there is no area of the country that can take more credit for that than you right here," he said. "You helped build America. You helped create wealth. You moved people. You created opportunities by what you built here. It's amazing what you've contributed to the greatest country in the world," Santorum said to applause. The former Pennsylvania senator never mentioned Romney, whose wife, Ann, addressed the crowd earlier in the evening (and received a warm but somewhat less enthusiastic greeting from the crowd than Santorum). Instead, Santorum concentrated on [|President Obama], accusing him of fostering a dangerous overreach of government and an ever-increasing regulatory burden on the U.S. economy. "This is a president who doesn't believe in you. We need someone in this election--unlike in 2008, when Americans were looking for someone they could believe in--we need a president who believes in you. That's the fundamental difference," he said to applause. He closed his 30-minute speech with a pitch for himself as a GOP nominee who has the "bold vision" and "strength of character" to help Republicans defeat Obama and rebuild America. Michigan, he said, has "an opportunity to be a game-changer in this primary. You have an opportunity to be a game-changer in the general election." The Feb. 28 balloting in Michigan is, along with Arizona's primary the same day, the next contest up on the Republican calendar. It will probably shape the race heading into Super Tuesday one week later, when 11 states vote. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-santorum-challenges-michigan-to-be-gamechanger-20120216,0,6405913.story

<span style="font-family: georgia,'times new roman',serif; font-size: 24px;"> Santorum finally releases tax documents -Elizabeth Martin 2/17/2012
NEW YORK (CNN) – The details of Rick Santorum's finances are coming to light, now that he's gone public with his tax records. When he left the Senate in 2006, Santorum was earning $165,000 a year, a nice chunk of change - but nothing compared to what he's been earning in the years since. "I'm not an oil man from Texas. I'm the grandson of a coal miner," said Santorum. These days Santorum is hardly working class, four years of newly released tax returns show since his 2006 defeat from senate, he raked in a total of $3.6 million. During his first year in the private sector, he made nearly $670,000 and almost doubled that by 2009, earning $1.1 million. Still, Santorum made far less than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Romney's 2010 income was $21.7 million, Gingrich reached $3.1 million, but Santorum only made $930,000. Most of Santorum's income came from work for energy and health care interests, as well as media contracts thanks to relationships built during his time in congress. Romney's campaign accused Santorum of cashing in as a Washington insider. Bigger paychecks allowed Santorum to move his seven kids into a large house in suburban Washington, but he tries to use the purchase to connect with millions affected by the housing crisis. "That house has lost 40 percent of its value. So I had to do a lot of paying down of debt to keep my mortgage payments down and to get my head - in a sense, suffered what a lot of people did," said Santorum. With his fatter paychecks came heftier tax bills, in 2007 he paid $167,000 in federal taxes, $310,000 in 2009. His effective tax rates are between 25 and 28 percent, nearly twice the 14.5 percent Romney paid on his income – from investments. "I do my own taxes. Heck, Romney paid half the tax rate I did, so obviously he doesn't do his own taxes. Maybe I should hire an accountant in the future," said Santorum. Santorum gave $81,500 to charity over four years, 2.2 percent of his income, far less than Romney and only slightly less than Gingrich. To be sure, with seven children, Santorum does have big expenses. "I have two kids in college and a child with a disability, needing care," said Santorum. The tax returns were a long time coming, Santorum said in January that he needed to go home and get his taxes off his computer, but then kept delaying the release. He promised almost daily they were, "coming soon." Santorum aides point out that the former senator released all of his taxes since being defeated from the Senate, four years worth, which is more than his GOP competitors. Romney released only two years of his income taxes, Newt Gingrich released just one year, and Ron Paul hasn't released any – with no plans to do so. //Copyrights 2012 CNN. All rights reserved.//

<span style="font-family: georgia,'times new roman',serif; font-size: 24px;"> Megadeath frontman wants to see Rick Santorum in the White House, report says -Elizabeth Martin 2/17/2012
While Republican voters continue to fluctuate on their choice for the 2012 __ [|presidential nominee] __, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has made a firm decision as to who he wants to see in the [|White House] : former Pennsylvania Senator [|Rick Santorum]. "Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable," the thrash metal star told MusicRadar.com. "You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I'm hoping that if it does come down to it, we'll see a Republican in __ [|the White House] __... and that it's Rick Santorum." Mustaine said he was supporting Santorum over the primary's delegate leader [|Mitt Romney] because he was distrustful of the means by which the former Massachusetts governor created his immense wealth. "I've got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney's five boys have a $100 million trust fund," Mustaine told the music website. "Where does a guy make that much money? So there's some questions there." The platinum-selling recording artist said that he briefly supported the __ [|candidacy] __ of former House Speaker [|Newt Gingrich], but ultimately decided he did not have the gravitas to be the president of the world's most powerful country. "And watching Newt Gingrich, I was pretty excited for a while, but now he's just gone back to being that person that everybody said he was -- that angry little man," the 50-year-old said. "I still like him, but I don't think I'd vote for him." As for [|Ron Paul], Mustaine said he simply could not support some of the Texas congressman's most extreme views. Megadeth's lead vocalist said Paul will "make total sense for a while, and then he'll say something so way out that it negates everything else." The rocker said that while he is now supporting Santorum, what he hopes for most in January 2013 is that [|Barack Obama] will not be inaugurated for a second term. "I can't bear to watch what's happened to our great country," Mustaine said. "Everybody's got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, 'Oh, Obama's doing such a great job...' I don't think so. Not from what I see." Read more: [|http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/02/15/megadeath-frontman-wants-to-see-rick-santorum-in-white-house/#ixzz1metD0LzU] = <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 25px;">Santorum jolts GOP presidential race with 3-state sweep <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 20px;">- Miranda Otis 3/5/2012 = **(CNN)** -- Rick Santorum awoke to a new reality Wednesday after sweeping all three Republican presidential contests a day earlier, reshaping the contest that will decide who runs against President Barack Obama in November. Santorum won caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado, as well as a nonbinding primary in Missouri to energize his campaign and raise questions about front-runner Mitt Romney's ability to attract broad conservative support. The victories by Santorum bolstered his contention that he is the strongest conservative challenger to the more moderate Romney for the GOP nomination, and the most formidable conservative candidate to take on Obama. "I don't stand here and claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," Santorum declared to cheering supporters outside St. Louis. "I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama." Colorado was the most competitive state of the day, with Santorum winning 40% of the vote to 35% for Romney, 13% for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and 12% for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. After a night of returns trickling in and the lead shifting between Santorum and Romney, Colorado Republican Party chairman Ryan Call announced live on CNN that Santorum was the winner. In Minnesota, Santorum got 45% of the vote to 27% for Paul, 17% for Romney and 11% for Gingrich, with 88% of the total counted, according to the secretary of state. The victory in a state Romney won in his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid was a strong statement by Santorum that he represents a major conservative challenge to both Romney and Gingrich. However, a low turnout in all three races signaled possible dissatisfaction among Republican voters with the candidates. All the 70 delegates available Tuesday came from the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses, while the Missouri primary was nonbinding with no delegates at stake. The two caucus states didn't officially award delegates Tuesday night -- that will happen down the road at district and state conventions -- but the news media, including CNN, will use them to make unofficial delegate count estimates. With 100% of the Missouri vote counted, Santorum had 55% to 25% for Romney and 12% for Paul, according to unofficial results. Gingrich didn't make the ballot in Missouri. Such a dominating victory by the conservative Santorum showed his appeal to Missouri's large blocs of evangelical and tea party supporters. "Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota," Santorum declared before the Colorado count had been completed. While Tuesday was a stunningly successful night for Santorum, it was a terrible night for Romney and Gingrich, who has been competing with Santorum for the support of conservatives against the more moderate Romney. Gingrich spent little time or money in the three states, instead focusing his now limping campaign on the Super Tuesday contests of March 6 that will be worth more than 400 delegates from 10 states. Romney, however, campaigned hard in Colorado and to a lesser degree Minnesota, and the stinging losses cost him any momentum from his two straight victories in Florida and Nevada prior to Tuesday. A senior adviser to Romney signaled the campaign would take a tougher approach toward his resurgent rival and portray him as a Washington insider. "Look, I just don't think it's a time when people are looking to Washington to solve problems with Washington," senior Romney adviser Stuart Stevens said of Santorum, a former U.S. senator. Stevens downplayed Tuesday's results, saying: "We'd like to win everywhere, but you can't. And we've focused on key states for how we see a path to the nomination." In Denver, Romney congratulated Santorum for his good night before the Colorado result was known. Rather than continuing criticism of Santorum, Romney sounded conciliatory in saying Republicans would unite behind the eventual nominee and that he expected to be that candidate. Perhaps in response to Santorum's success, Romney struck a populist note by telling the crowd how his father never graduated college but went on to head a business and become governor of Michigan.

media type="custom" key="12841860" =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 180%; vertical-align: baseline;">Romney, Santorum to Split Michigan Delegates <span style="color: #930000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">- Miranda Otis 3/5/2012 = <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #cc0000; display: block; font-size: 1px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|i] <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> (WASHINGTON) — Despite winning the popular vote in Michigan’s primary, Mitt Romney will split his home state’s convention delegates with second-place finisher Rick Santorum. They each won 15 of the state’s 30 delegates. Santorum portrayed the delegate tie as a victory, given that Romney was born and raised in Michigan and outspent him. “This is a huge win for us. Let’s play it the way it is,” Santorum said Wednesday after delivering a speech in Tennessee, which holds its primary next week. “Don’t give Romney all the spin. We went into his backyard, he spent a fortune — money he had no intention of spending — and we came out of there with the same number of delegates he does,” Santorum said. “We are in great shape going to this election. We are excited about what’s going to happen on Super Tuesday.” Romney got the most votes in Michigan, 41 percent to Santorum’s 38 percent. But most of Michigan’s delegates are awarded based on results in each of the state’s 14 congressional districts. Candidates got two delegates for winning each district. Romney and Santorum each won seven congressional districts, so they split 28 delegates. The final two delegates are awarded proportionally, based on the statewide vote, and they split those as well. In the other primary on Tuesday, Romney won all 29 delegates in Arizona’s winner-take-all contest. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul were shut out of delegates in Tuesday’s contests. Romney leads the overall race for delegates, with 167. Santorum has 87 delegates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has 32 and Texas Rep. Ron Paul has 19. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. Next up: precinct caucuses in Washington state on Saturday, followed by Super Tuesday next week, when voters will head to the polls or caucuses in 10 states, with 419 delegates at stake. Read more: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #003399; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/29/romney-santorum-to-split-michigan-delegates/#ixzz1oGqt13QS]

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 170%;">**Rick Santorum not high on Ohio victory odds <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 80%;">- Miranda Otis 3/5/2012 ** COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican contender [|Rick Santorum] dialed back expectations for a clean win in Ohio as polls had his lead evaporating and [|Mitt Romney] landed a key endorsement. “It’s a tough state for us, only because of the fact of the money disadvantage,” Santorum told “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re running a grass-roots campaign. We’re hanging in there, and we’re going to do very, very well,” he added. “We have the anti-Romney vote, if you will,” he said. Santorum’s blue-collar roots and appeal to Ohio’s evangelicals and social conservatives had given him in some polls a double-digit lead for Ohio, which has 66 delegates. But a Marist/NBC poll released Sunday said the race between Santorum and Romney was a dead heat. GOP strategist [|Dan Schnur] said the stakes are high. “If Romney doesn’t win Ohio, it will become more difficult over time to convince donors he can win a state where he doesn’t have some kind of edge, like his father being an ex-governor,” he said. “For Santorum, a loss in Ohio ends the rationale for an opposition candidate.” Romney got some conservative love this weekend with the endorsement of House Majority Leader [|Eric Cantor], who cast an early ballot in Virginia, one of 10 Super Tuesday states. Many Ohio Republicans were still undecided in recent polls, noted [|Dr. David Westbrock], vice chairman of the Montgomery County GOP. “I think the state establishment is behind Romney, and the Tea Party people are more split between Santorum and Gingrich. But there is a pragmatic streak in both that I think will win out and push for whoever can win in November,” he said. Read more: [|http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/rick-santorum-high-ohio-victory-odds-article-1.1033085#ixzz1oGrMmff9]

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 27px; line-height: 40px;">**Rick Santorum:** <span style="color: #2222ec; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">by: Michael Hall and Kathryn McDaniel

Synonpsis- Richard John Santorum was born May 10, 1958, in Winchester, Virginia, the second of three children. In 1990, a 32-year-old Rick Santorum ran for political office for the first time as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district. He sought higher office, and won election to the United States Senate in 1994. In 2012, he announced his intention to run in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Early Life- Richard John Santorum was born May 10, 1958, in Winchester, Virginia, the second of three children. His father Aldo, an immigrant from Italy, is a psychologist, and his mother, Kay, is a nurse. The family was Catholic and attended church regularly, though Rick later described his parents' religious practice as more dutiful than intense. Both Aldo and Kay Santorum worked for the Veterans Administration; Rick Santorum mostly grew up in suburbs outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but graduated from high school in Illinois. He then attended Pennsylvania State University, where he pledged the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity and earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1980. He followed with an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A lifelong Republican, the conservative Santorum volunteered for Senator John Heinz's campaign while still in college and then worked as an administrative assistant to Republican State Senator Doyle Corman while putting himself through law school at Dickinson School of Law. Santorum earned his law degree in 1986 and started practicing law at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, where he met his future wife, Karen Garver Santorum, with whom he would eventually have seven children.



<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Political Career- <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In 1990, a 32-year-old Rick Santorum ran for political office for the first time as a long-shot candidate for the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, representing the Pittsburgh suburbs where he had been raised. Surprising political experts, Santorum won the election, knocking seven-term Democratic incumbent Doug Walgren out of office. Particularly effective in that first campaign were Santorum's charges that Walgren had lost touch with his constituents by spending too much time in Washington and not enough in his district. As a freshman congressman, Santorum became part of the so-called "Gang of Seven" of new GOP lawmakers (as did future Speaker of the House John Boehner); the group made its reputation by fiercely attacking corruption in the Democratic-controlled House, focusing in particular on the House banking scandal and the Congressional Post Office scandal. <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Considered a rising star within the Republican Party, Santorum soon sought higher office and won election to the United States Senate in 1994, at the age of just 36, again knocking out a long-tenured Democratic incumbent in the general election. Six years later, Santorum won reelection to a second term and became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the third highest-ranking party leadership position in the Senate. A skilled and spirited partisan politician, Santorum became famous for his blunt and aggressive style in Congress, described as "confrontational, partisan, 'in your face' style of politics and government."

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Political Views- <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Santorum garnered attention far beyond the borders of his Pennsylvania constituency for his vigorous advocacy of socially conservative views. "I'm out front on a lot of issues that matter to people of faith," he said. A conservative Catholic, Santorum became one of Washington's most prominent traditionalist voices on issues such as abortion, sexual morality, evolution and euthanasia. He introduced legislation that sought to attach to President <span style="margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">[|George W. Bush] 's No Child Left Behind education bill the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to Darwinian evolution in science classes. He sought to prevent the husband of a brain-damaged Florida woman named Terri Schiavo from removing her from life support. And he adopted staunchly pro-life positions on all debates over abortion.

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Controversies- <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Santorum became the center of an odd national controversy in 2003 after he was quoted in an interview comparing consensual homosexual relationships to abusive "man on child, man on dog" sex. Liberals and gay rights activists reacted with outrage; nationally syndicated sex advice columnist Dan Savage took revenge by encouraging his readers to come up with a new definition for the word "santorum." Their graphic and scatological neologism, promoted via one of the first successful "Google bombs" to game the search algorithm, remains the top-ranking result when one enters "Santorum" into the influential search engine. When Santorum began considering a presidential run in 2012, some commentators suggested that he had no chance to win, solely due to this "Google problem." <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">During his second term in the United States Senate, Santorum became embroiled in a new controversy over his legal residence. Though officially residing in (and thus representing) Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, Santorum and his family spent most of their time in Leesburg, Virginia. His five eldest children were enrolled in a cyber school paid for at taxpayers' expense; in 2004, the school board determined the children were not legal residents of the Penn Hills district and asked Santorum to repay the district for the cost of their education. This fight dragged on through 2006, opening the senator up to charges that he had abandoned his constituency and thus damaging Santorum's reelection chances.

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Recent Career- <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In 2006, a year in which Democrats nationwide made sweeping gains in congressional elections, Rick Santorum failed in his reelection campaign to Democrat Bob Casey, losing by a wide margin of 59-41 percent. In the wake of that loss, Santorum kept a relatively low profile on a national political scene; he ruled out a presidential run in 2008 and also bowed out of the 2010 race for Pennsylvania's other seat in the United States Senate. Instead, Santorum resumed his work as a lawyer and also became a contributor to the conservative Fox News cable network. <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In 2011, however, Rick Santorum reemerged as a potential 2012 presidential candidate, with his well-established social and fiscal conservatism appealing to the GOP's energized Tea Party base. Santorum's official website lists his campaign as a "formation of a testing-the-waters" effort, and he is expected to announce the launch of an official campaign in June 2011. Though his national polling numbers remain relatively weak, Santorum remains confident about his chances to pull off yet another underdog political victory, and very much enjoys the process: "It gives you the freedom to do what you truly believe is right," he says.



Romney- Dark Grey Gingrich- Yellow Santorum- Dark Green Paul- Light Green

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Rick Santorum Against Gay Rights
April 24, 2011-

<span style="line-height: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">media type="youtube" key="duQCsbtYi5M" height="315" width="560"

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Ballot Issues for Rick Santorum?
<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">January 5, 2012- <span style="margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">media type="custom" key="12339202"

Rick Santorum Draws Passionate Reaction From All Sides in New Hampshire
<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">January 7, 2012-

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">The former Pennsylvania senator has long been known for his conservative views on social, foreign and economic policy.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">But as he left the last event in a six-stop campaign blitz in the Granite State Saturday – a meet-and-greet with patrons at a pharmacy and general store in this small town 20 miles south of Manchester – it became clear that the higher Santorum’s profile becomes, the stronger the reaction he receives from all sides.



<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">In terms of players on the national stage, that point was borne out Saturday when former presidential candidate and Christian conservative leader Gary Bauer announced his endorsement of Santorum over others in the field seeking the social conservatives vote, including former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">And in the polls, Santorum appears to be steadily building on his support among Granite State voters.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">But the broad spectrum of views on Santorum was particularly clear among those who came to see the former senator here late Saturday afternoon.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> Rod Olsen, a 42-year-old stay-at-home dad, was volunteering for Santorum at the event – a position in which he didn’t expect to find himself earlier this week.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> “Tuesday of the Iowa caucus, I was actually coming out here to work for Mitt Romney’s campaign,” said Olsen, of Modesto, Calif. “Trip was already booked. And he got up to give his speech – Rick – and he quoted C.S. Lewis. He looked at his wife, he thanked her, and then he thanked God.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> “I turned to my wife immediately and said, ‘You know, that’s a candidate I can support,’” Olsen continued. “Slept on it. On the way to the airport, called the campaign headquarters, said, ‘Look, I’m coming out. I’d like to volunteer. Can you put me to work?’ And they said, ‘Yep.’”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“And so, here I am,” he said.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Olsen, who said that he’d had the chance to talk one-on-one with Santorum Saturday morning over breakfast, noted that while he’s not able to vote in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation contest, he’s eager to work the campaign trail for a candidate he believes in.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“People in New Hampshire have a special – this event is unlike any others in the entire country, because everyone’s involved; everyone cares,” he said. “You go to California, we’re so late in the process that the decision is typically already made. I can’t vote here, but I can have an impact by helping who I think has a good chance.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">On the other end of the spectrum were Meredith Sidoti, an auto-worker from Rhode Island, and Rick Dodge, who is from Amherst, Mass., and is self-employed.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Both said that they drove to the Granite State to see Santorum in person, even though they strongly oppose the senator’s bid.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Sidoti, 41 and a registered Democrat, said that she is “obviously not a fan of the senator” and particularly disagrees with him on social issues.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> Dodge, who is 55 and was holding a handmade sign criticizing the senator’s opposition to same-sex marriage, said that Santorum “brings out the best in gay people.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> “It kind of hits that raw nerve,” he said. “So, when he gets going on his stump speech, you know, it’s really negative, and it’s not so great. He’s not going to win in New Hampshire so it’s kind of like, he’s just really priming the pump for South Carolina, I think.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">As at campaign events for former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney earlier in the day, many of those in the crowd for Santorum’s meet-and-greet had come from out-of-state – a sign that the GOP race is drawing the attention of voters far beyond the Granite State, even though the contest is not expected to be as close a race as were Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses last week.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Two members of Saturday’s crowd who did hail from New Hampshire were Jack McCarthy, 81, and Harry Haytayan, 52. Both residents of Hollis (“I live right around the corner in the best barn in New England,” McCarthy said), the two Granite State Republicans said that they remained largely undecided in the GOP race – but that they were not planning to vote for Santorum on Tuesday.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> “He’s too religious for me,” said McCarthy, a retiree.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Haytayan, an attorney, said that he disagrees with Santorum on social issues.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“I don’t think public policy ought to deal with privacy issues,” he said. “Absolutely not.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“Or the church,” added McCarthy.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“The church, nothing,” Haytayan said. “To talk about stuff like that, even if you believe it, it doesn’t belong in the public discourse. I respect someone’s right to believe it, but it does not belong in politics.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Haytayan, who used to serve in the New Hampshire state legislature and hosted a house party in 2008 for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid, said that at this point, his choice on Tuesday would “probably be Gingrich.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“Is that right?” McCarthy said.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“Yeah. For the one reason – to be candid with you – I think he talks more about substantive issues, and he knows his stuff,” Haytayan said. “And he strikes me as someone who thinks everything through. Too many of the rest of them sound like talking points. ... The guy, at least he knows the policy. That’s refreshing.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">McCarthy, who noted that he’s “never missed a vote” since he was first eligible to cast a ballot, said that he’s leaning “80-20” toward Romney, primarily because of his business acumen.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“I think he’s a gentleman; I think he’s a good businessman; he knows where the dollars are,” McCarthy said. “I think he’s way ahead of them as far as business goes and as far as the economy goes, but that’s all that matters, it seems. And as far as keeping the peace – I think he’d know how to handle situations in Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan, and every other one.”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Fresh off his Iowa win, Santorum is continuing to emphasize his stance on social issues as he hits the campaign trail in New Hampshire. The question: Might his social conservative views resonate with some of New Hampshire’s GOP primary voters?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Haytayan and McCarthy said they believe it would be only a small slice of the primary day electorate.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“And probably those are people who would vote for him anyway, so I don’t know why he’s talking about it,” Haytayan said. “He’s getting some very bad advice. But who am I to say?...He must be doing something right.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">“But in New Hampshire, I can tell you, guys like Jack and I – and we’re Republicans – and that’s a huge turnoff.”



<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Santorum's Main Backer Plans to Keep on Funding
<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">January 27, 2012- While Rick Santorum is in Florida seeking to revive his presidential campaign, a man in Wyoming might hold the key to extending his candidacy, and the entire fight for the Republican nomination. Foster Friess is the largest financial backer of the political entity running an independent campaign to boost Mr. Santorum in the GOP race. Mr. Friess said this week he isn't likely to help Mr. Santorum ahead of Tuesday's Florida primary, because it's "not realistic" that the former Pennsylvania senator can prevail in the winner-take-all contest. But Mr. Friess, 71 years old, said he plans to fund television advertisements for Mr. Santorum in other states in February and March. That could help keep Mr. Santorum competitive against his better-funded rivals and is one reason the fight for the Republican nomination will likely run at least through Super Tuesday on March 6. Mr. Santorum's campaign has spent less than $1 million on television ads, according to Kantar Media, a company that tracks ad spending, [|while the primary independent group supporting him, the Red, White and Blue Fund, has spent more than double that amount]. Mr. Friess is the largest donor to the fund; he wouldn't disclose the exact amount he has given. "I'm committed to Rick Santorum, and I'm going to be giving more to Rick Santorum," said Mr. Friess, who said he likes the former senator's authenticity. "It's just a matter of when and how much." Mr. Santorum's supporters say he wants to stay in the race as long as possible in the hopes that support for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would collapse. That could allow him to step forward as the alternative to Mitt Romney who could perhaps best appeal to social-conservative voters. New campaign-finance rules and the rise of political players known as Super PACs have altered the 2012 presidential primaries. Unlike candidates, these committees can raise unlimited donations from individuals to spend on TV advertisements. "There is no question that one reason that this is turning out to be such a competitive primary season is that candidates who in prior years would have been starved out are now still in the race," said Robert Kelner, a campaign-finance lawyer with Covington & Burling LLP. Mr. Friess, who lives in Jackson Hole, in the past five years has donated $331,000 to Republican candidates and parties, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. He has given millions of dollars to conservative groups. Originally from Wisconsin, Mr. Friess was a reporter in his younger days, writing obituaries and covering weddings for a weekly paper in Rice Lake with a circulation of 5,000. He made his fortune on Wall Street with an investment fund called Friess Associates, best known for its Brandywine Fund. No fan of bureaucracy, he liked to conduct business meetings while standing, in order to speed them along. In 2001, Mr. Friess sold a majority stake in his firm for $247 million. He said he belongs to 13 golf clubs. At his and his wife's joint 70th birthday, they gave each of the 110 couples who attended a check for $70,000 made out to the guest's favorite charities. The total was about $7 million. Mr. Santorum met Mr. Friess when the lawmaker was running for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Over the course of Mr. Santorum's political career, Mr. Friess and his family members donated more than $70,000 directly to his campaigns. When Mr. Santorum began his run for president, Mr. Friess agreed to be a primary financier of the Red, White and Blue Fund. Armed with $500,000, the fund helped Mr. Santorum pull off a surprise win in Iowa. But the candidate has since had a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire and a third-place showing in South Carolina. Recent national polls put him well behind Messrs. Gingrich and Romney. Still, Mr. Friess said Mr. Santorum has the best chance of winning the nomination because he "doesn't have to explain Bain and he doesn't have the baggage that Gingrich has." He was referring to Bain Capital, the private-equity firm that Mr. Romney led. The Red, White and Blue Fund isn't the largest Super PAC in the 2012 race. [|A group supporting Mr. Romney has spent $9 million in Florida alone]. [|Mr. Gingrich has been aided by a Super PAC funded with $10 million from the family of Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson]. Mr. Friess said he will look for contests where Mr. Santorum can win or round up delegates, including Nevada on Feb. 4, Colorado on Feb. 7 and Michigan on Feb. 28. "You don't want to put all your lead on the target. You want to leave some arrows in the quiver," he said.

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Santorum's Daughter Hopitalized
<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">January 31, 2012- The hospitalization of GOP presidential candidate [|Rick Santorum]’s daughter has thrown her genetic disorder into the spotlight. Isabella, 3, suffers from Trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality where the 18th chromosome appears three times, rather than twice. Babies born with this surplus of genetic material have a host of problems, from developmental to cardiac abnormalities. What is particularly interesting about little Bella, who has been hospitalized with pneumonia, is that she has lived as long as she has. About 90% die before they’re born or result in a stillbirth, said [|Dawnette Lewis, M.D.], director of maternal fetal medicine at Downstate Long Island College Hospital. Just 8% of those surviving babies live to see their first birthday. Fewer than 1% of kids born with Trisomy 18 will live to the age of 10. Bella has defied some extremely long odds. Each baby born with the genetic disorder is affected differently, said Lewis. “It all depends on what part of the body is afflicted, which organs and how the heart is functioning,” said Lewis. Children born with Trisomy 18 may be very small, have difficulty moving and speaking. They may require 24-hour care or need to be on a respirator. Others may require feeding tubes. Approximately 1 in 6,000 babies are born with the genetic condition. The main risk factor is maternal age — Bella is the youngest of Rick and [|Karen Santorum]’s seven children. Newly pregnant mothers are tested for genetic abnormalities such as Trisomy 18 and Down syndrome (the tripling of the 21st chromosome) in the first trimester. The doctor and patient will access the risk and then, if necessary, do a test on the placenta to ascertain the fetus’ genetic material. The chorionic villus sampling — or CVS test — can more conclusively identify genetic disorders. At this point, many mothers have a heartbreaking decision to make. Many research the odds of the child’s survival and choose to terminate the pregnancy. Others choose to read up on the illness and be as prepared as possible for the emotional and physical challenges of the child. For the Santorum family, it seems as though this latest hospitalization has been a crisis averted. "A simple cold can kill her, and it almost did," Santorum told [|Glenn Beck] on his radio show Monday. "But she was able to get great care and yesterday really made a great turnaround and she will be out of the ICU today and so we are getting back to normal here."

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Rick Santorum's Allies Go Negative for First Time
<span style="color: #2222ec; font-size: 140%; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">February 2, 2012-

Rick Santorum’s friends go on the attack, planning to start heading up in the polls.

Rick Santorum Campaigning with Urgency
February 2, 2012-

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. — Sharpening his criticism, [|Rick Santorum] laid into [|Mitt Romney]'s health care overhaul in Massachusetts and [|Newt Gingrich]'s shifting policy positions as he sought to deny either rival the Republican presidential nomination. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Santorum, looking to find footing ahead of Saturday's caucuses in Nevada and Tuesday's primary in Colorado, told supporters Wednesday in a freshly polished campaign speech that [|Republicans]would guarantee President [|Barack Obama] a second term if Romney or Gingrich were to win the nomination. Signaling he was unwilling to exit the race and help either rival rise, Santorum said he would push on all the way to the Republican convention, if necessary. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #ffff00; margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"I'm in this race until the very end," he said to boisterous cheers during a speech that his advisers cast as a major address, but offered little new. "I'm going to stay in this until the very end." <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">With fresh frustration following Tuesday's loss in Florida, the former Pennsylvania senator said neither Gingrich nor Romney were bets Republicans could risk. <span style="display: block; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">

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<span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"There were people in our party who flirted with Obamacare," Santorum said. "Romneycare, Obamacare, all these plans, they don't care." <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He noted the health care legislation Romney signed into law was a model for [|Democrats]' national plan and Gingrich previously supported its centerpiece — a requirement that everyone buy health insurance. While his arguments are familiar, Santorum sharpened his attacks after three consecutive losses in the nominating process. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Barack Obama, in a debate or in this election, is going to destroy Mitt Romney on the issue of health care," Santorum warned. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Gov. Romney is for Romneycare. Just not at the federal level. Who cares?" he sai<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175,192,227,0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77,128,180,0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26,26,26,0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">d. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">And he said Gingrich is "running around" taking credit for Republican accomplishments during his term as speaker. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"He's like the CEO of the company taking credit for making the car," Santorum mocked. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Yet Santorum is looking at some tough times ahead. He only recently opened political operations in Nevada, which he visited for his first campaign events on Tuesday and planned to return on Thursday. The organization-intensive caucuses are Saturday. Romney handily won them four years ago, and he didn't disengage from the state. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Next up is Colorado, where Santorum is campaigning hard while trying to scramble a traditional campaign. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">That means a strategy shift toward sharp attacks in the hopes of wounding his rivals. He's shuttling between the upcoming states, hoping the criticism proves to shake the ground. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Looking to shore up his own standing here, he scheduled an evening discussion in Colorado Springs with a surprise guest, conservative leader James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"This could be the place where it turns around," Dobson said at an evening rally, trying to motivate followers of his conservative group to join Santorum's coalition. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"I have great concern about the other individuals in this race. … It would appear to me that Mitt Romney is not a conservative. And Newt Gingrich, I don't know what he is," Dobson said. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Someone shouted from the back of the room: "Swinger." <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"You are the only true conservative in the race," Dobson said. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Minnesota and Missouri have their contests Tuesday. Gingrich is not on Missouri's nonbinding primary ballot. Santorum's advisers were hoping the attacks on Romney in recent days could yield a surprise showing there — and perhaps give the Santorum campaign a shot of enthusiasm. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But Santorum faces challenges of his own as a candidate. During a question-and-answer session here in the mountains of Woodland Park, he found himself defending drug companies to a mother and son who asked Santorum about the high costs of medicine. Santorum said markets would solve the problems, despite the woman's repeated and frustrated pleas to help her pay the thousands of dollars each month for her son's prescriptions. <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Meanwhile, Santorum's 3-year-old daughter, Bella, remained in a hospital near their Virginia home undergoing treatment for complications of a [|genetic disorder]. He said many experts describe the condition "as incompatible with life." <span style="margin: 10px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"If things work out, she'll be home either today or first thing tomorrow morning," he said after he spoke with his wife by phone before speaking at Colorado Christian University. "Thank you for all those prayers."

Santorum Warns of Country's Demise
February 3, 2012- LAKEWOOD, Colo.—Rick Santorum's campaign slogan could very well be one word: doomsday. To hear him tell it, the United States will collapse under the weight of its health care system and basic freedoms will be history. Iran will annihilate Israel and then South Carolina if Iran isn't blocked from building a nuclear weapon. And divorce will yield higher taxes for all Americans.

Unless, of course, Republicans pick Santorum as the party's presidential nominee and he goes on to defeat President Barack Obama. "Go back and read what the sirens did once you arrived on that island," Santorum warned students at Colorado Christian University this week, invoking mythology. "They devour you. They destroy you. They consume you." "Ladies and gentleman we cannot listen to the siren song," he added. "We cannot listen to President Obama and we can't listen to those in our party who want to be just a little bit less than what the Democrats and the left is doing to our country." It was standard fare for the former Pennsylvania senator. He doesn't mince words in campaign speeches in which he describes how -- in his view -- the country is heading down the wrong path and the government is growing too big. Gloom and doom usually pepper his remarks. And he often argues that America will falter if he fails to win the nomination. "You have honor to live up to, to hand off to the next generation as least as great a country as given to you. And you all know that is in jeopardy," he told a crowd in Colorado Springs. The dire warnings contrast directly with the sunny optimism his top rivals often exude. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney talks about how much he loves America. And Newt Gingrich lectures on the nation's unique place in the world and its potential to free the world. They are following legions of other politicians who have used optimism to court voters with visions of the country's greatness. Ronald Reagan ousted Jimmy Carter in 1980 by asking whether Americans wanted a chance for a better tomorrow. Four years later, Reagan won with his rhetoric about America as a "shining city on a hill," a notion borrowed from a 17th-century Puritan. Bill Clinton captured the presidency by appealing to voters' middle-class struggles and urging them "don't stop thinking about tomorrow." George W. Bush captured the White House in 2000 with the promise to restore dignity to the office after the scandal-ridden Clinton years. And Obama won his first term in the White House on a message of hope and change, appealing to voters' desire to turn the page after eight years of Bush. At times, Santorum seems to be doing the exact opposite, currying favor with voters by appealing to their frustrations with Washington as he looks to regain his own political footing after three consecutive losses in the GOP nomination race. "Every once in a while Rick may get passionate and come across as angry, but Americans can appreciate that, because a lot of people out there are angry at where we are right now and they're looking for a fighter who understands their struggle," Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said. The former senator pitches himself as the only politician standing between a wholesale meltdown of American values and a political tsunami for his GOP. On the health care overhaul, Santorum warns: "Be careful what you do ... because once the government creates a right, it can tell you how to exercise that right." On Obama's regulations, he says: `Under Obamacare, you are going to have to provide insurance coverage, free coverage, for things that are absolutely against the teaching of the Catholic Church: free sterilization, free abortions. ... This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we can expect." On Iranian policy, he warns that Tehran first would destroy Israel and then turn its sights on the United States. "They cannot have a nuclear weapon, because you, in Greenville, will not be safe," he said in South Carolina. And on declining marriage rates, he adds: "Taxes go up and the economy struggles. We know that marriage and the two-parent family is the unit upon which this country was founded." Santorum also constantly warns that neither Romney nor Gingrich would be an effective challenger to Obama and says he's sounding the alarm against a political disaster. "Barack Obama, in a debate or in this election, is going to destroy Mitt Romney on the issue of health care," Santorum told a crowd in Woodland Park. As for Gingrich, he says this of the former House speaker: "Way too erratic."

Rick Santorum On Islam-
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Rick Santorum Latest GOP Candidate to Support Tim Tebow
February 3, 2012-

Rick Santorum is the latest Republican presidential candidate to try to align his fortunes with popular Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. The former Pennsylvania senator was photographed Wednesday "Tebowing" with supporters at a campaign event in Lakewood, Colo., where he was endorsed by former GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo. The picture was posted to the Tumblr blog of his Iowa campaign manager, Cody Brown.The Internet meme — in which individuals adopt the quarterback's signature kneel for photographs — originated from a website launched by Broncos fan Jared Kleinstein."Tebowing is defined as to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different," Kleinstein's website says.

Tebow is known for being a devout Christian, and won over fans for emphasizing his faith as he steered the Broncos to a series of last-minute wins despite lacking traditional quarterbacking skills. He appeared in an anti-abortion-rights television ad during last year's Super Bowl, and in college undertook missionary work in the off season. Santorum, himself a devout Catholic, has argued on the campaign trail that he best represents social conservative values. But Santorum is not the only GOP candidate to try to capture some of the excitement surrounding the star quarterback. A political action committee supporting Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign, now defunct, debuted an ad last month that compared the Minnesota congressman to Tebow.

The ad notes that "the establishment sports guys love to hate Tim Tebow: he's not smart enough, his mechanics are no good, he's not accurate enough — still, he just keeps winning." The ad goes on to argue that Tebow makes sports fans "feel guilty" because he doesn't "drink, cuss, smoke, or kick opponents when they're down" and because he is a born-again Christian. As pictures of Tebow and Bachmann flashed across the screen, the announcer drew parallels between the candidate and the quarterback. "The same could be said of Michele Bachmann: no baggage, Christian, and like Tebow, she keeps fighting and she just keeps winning votes," the announcer says. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also got in on Tebow fever, saying he hoped he would be the "Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses" during a debate in Sioux City in December, arguing that he could engineer a late comeback to overcome his sagging poll numbers. "There are a lot of folks that said Tim Tebow wasn't going to be a very good NFL quarterback," Perry said. "There are people that stood up and said, 'Well, he doesn't have the right throwing mechanisms, or he's not playing the game right.' And he won two national championships, and that looked pretty good. We were the national champions in job creation back in Texas." Perry dropped his bid for the GOP nomination Jan. 19.The quarterback has not endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary, although has admitted to being approached by multiple campaigns.

Rick Santorum Looking Good in Ohio
February 3, 2012- A poll released this week shows former Pennsylvania Senator **Rick Santorum** matching up better in Ohio against President **Barack Obama** than the other Republican contenders. Public Policy Polling, a Democrat-affiliated organization, shows 42 percent of those polled favoring Santorum against Obama’s 48 percent in a head-to-head match up in Ohio. Nine percent were undecided. The other candidates also all lose in Ohio, according to the poll, but by slightly wider margins: **Mitt Romney** 42 to Obama’s 49; **Ron Paul** 38 to 48, and **Newt Gingrich**, 39 to 51. Among potential Ohio voters, Santorum is also the most popular of the GOP contenders. He has a 35 percent approval rating, while Romney’s approval rating is 28 percent, Paul is at 25 and Gingrich at 25. The poll surveyed 820 Ohio voters on Jan. 28 and 29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. A Gallup Poll released this week shows Obama’s approval rate in Ohio at 42 percent. Nationally, the Gallup Poll finds the race between Obama and Santorum wider apart: 51 percent for the president to 43 percent for the former senator. Gallup has Obama and Romney in a dead heat (48-48), while Paul is just three percentage points behind Obama (49-46) and Gingrich is 12 points behind (53-41) in head-to-head match ups.

Update: However, this did not end up being the case on Super Tuesday, as Romney won the state. But Santorum did receive almost as many votes and only lost by .8% of votes.

Rick Santorum Controversial Statement on Blacks
January 4, 2012

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= = =**<span style="color: #2222ec; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Rick Santorum Raised 4.2 Million Dollars in Month of January **=

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">January 31, 2012-
<span style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> Rick Santorum's campaign said Monday it raised $4.2 million in January - slightly less than rival [|Newt Gingrich's $5 million for the month] - but has more than $1 million cash on hand, an amount it says leaves Santorum well-positioned to compete going forward. <span style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said the campaign's numbers picked up after Gingrich began dropping in the polls following his win in the South Carolina primary. It now has more than $1.1 million cash available to spend. <span style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">"Our fundraising increase is in direct relation to Gingrich's collapse," Gidley said. "We raise more money when Gingrich shows signs of weakness. He put all his eggs in Florida; we did not. When he collapses [Monday], he's going to have to re-evaluate his campaign." <span style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">The Gingrich campaign would not say how much money it has on hand, but the former speaker has confidently said he will have plenty of funds to compete for the next six months if necessary. <span style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Santorum bypassed Florida this week and on Tuesday campaigned in Lone Tree, Colo., whose state holds its caucus on Feb. 7. "I have the highest favorability ratings in Florida," he said. But he said voters there never perceived he could win the state. "Well, If those 68 percent [of non-Mitt Romney voters] would vote for me, I could win," he said.

<span style="color: #2222ec; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">February 17, 2012-
 * <span style="color: #2222ec; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Rick Santorum Seeks to Ride Midwest Momentum to Michigan Upset **

America, it seems, does not think that Rick Santorum stands much of a chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination: Bettors on the prediction market Intrade gave him only a 17.7 percent shot of securing the GOP nod, a paltry amount for the candidate leading the national polls. [|A closer look at Michigan] – the next state to vote in the primary, on Feb. 28, the same day as Arizona – might change their minds. That’s right – the native state of Santorum’s rival Mitt Romney might be the one to make Santorum the new GOP darling and deliver a shocking, potentially decisive blow to the race’s presumptive favorite. Thus far, Santorum has simply owned the Midwest. He won Iowa. He won Minnesota. He won Missouri. The region, laden with social conservative voters, has sided time and time again with the former Pennsylvania senator, the most outspoken candidate on issues such as abortion. In Iowa, for instance, 83 percent of Republican caucus-goers described themselves as conservatives, including 47 percent who said they are “very” conservative. Santorum was backed by a third of the very conservative faction, paving the way for his Jan. 3 victory there over Romney. In addition, evangelicals accounted for 58 percent of Iowa caucus-goers. Santorum won a third of that group, too. Yet another indication of Santorum’s strong support from socially conservative evangelicals: He won 55 percent of voters who cited abortion as their top issue. A month later, GOP voters in the heartland again delivered a stinging rebuke of Romney as Santorum swept a trio of states: Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. In 2008, Romney had won the latter with 60 percent of the vote. In one county – El Paso County – the former Massachusetts governor raked in 58 percent of the vote that year. But not this year, not against Santorum. Santorum won 47 percent of the county’s vote Feb. 7, compared with 31 percent for Romney. Minnesota – another state that Romney carried in 2008 – also opted for Santorum this time around. Indeed, despite the endorsement of the state’s former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, despite the fact that his super PAC, Restore Our Future ,spent money on television advertising there, Romney did not even finish second in this month’s caucuses, but rather third. Making matters worse, he failed to win even one county. Yet again, conservative voters – the ones who make up the base of the party – had opted for Santorum. In the Midwestern states, Santorum, 53, has been boosted by the fact that social and cultural issues like Planned Parenthood, contraceptives and the Catholic Church have played a prominent role in the news cycle. That is something that Santorum will hope to replicate in Michigan. Another factor that he hopes will help him is his oft-cited, blue-collar roots. Santorum’s grandfather worked in Pennsylvania’s coal mines, giving the candidate the kind of story that tends to resonate with voters in Rust Belt states like Michigan. At Santorum’s [|first campaign stop in Michigan] Thursday in Detroit, he joked that to his grandfather, the fact that he is “running as a conservative Republican … caused quite a few flips in the grave for him.” If Santorum can manage to duplicate his Midwest magic in Michigan, a win over Romney – in Romney’s home state, no less – could prove damaging enough to change the fate of the race once and for all. “This is a huge, crucial moment,” ABC News contributor Matthew Dowd told George Stephanopoulos this week on “Good Morning America. “I think it’s actually the most important moment for Romney in this entire campaign up until now. The moment is, can he stop Rick Santorum like he stopped everybody else. If Rick Santorum wins this, I think what we’re going to have is a [|new front-runner] for the first time in this race after the Michigan primary going into Super Tuesday. It is an unbelievably important moment for Mitt Romney in his home state. If he loses, it’s a much different race.” No wonder Romney, 64, is now treating Michigan like a must-win state. And that is one of a number of factors that will work against Santorum in the coming days. On Thursday, the pro-Santorum’s super PAC – the Red, White and Blue Fund – announced an ad buy in Michigan worth nearly $700,000. But even that is less than half of what Romney and his allies are deploying in their bid to destroy Santorum’s candidacy. As David Axelrod, a top adviser to President Obama’s re-election campaign, tweeted Friday, “Congratulations, Rick. You’ve arrived! Getting full Romney treatment now.” If what Romney did to Newt Gingrich in Florida is any indication, Santorum has plenty of reason to worry about Romney’s financial firepower. In the run-up to the Sunshine State’s primary last month, Romney and his allies spent more than $15 million on ads, and all but one of those ads was negative. The overwhelming array of attacks proved far too much for Gingrich to overcome as he slumped to a resounding defeat in Florida’s Jan. 31 primary. More cause for concern for Santorum: in Michigan – [|one of the states hit hardest] by the country’s economic downturn – the main issue is the economy. The auto industry is driving the economic recovery in the state, where manufacturing makes up more than 20 percent of the state’s economy. On Thursday – as Santorum and Romney both campaigned in the state – [|General Motors announced] record profits of $7.6 billion in 2011. The state’s unemployment rate has plunged from 12.6 percent in March 2009 to 9.3 percent in December 2011. A state focused more on jobs than social issues is good news not for Santorum, but for Romney, the former businessman who has staked his candidacy on his ability to turn around the country’s economy. Thus far Santorum has attempted to combat that fact by arguing that a healthy economy is impossible without healthy families. “We are not going to have a strong economy, folks, or limited government, if the family continues to decline,” Santorum said in Detroit Thursday. Will Santorum’s strength among social conservatives, his rust-belt background and his momentum in the Midwest be enough to beat Romney’s financial fortitude, economic know-how and home-state advantage? Come Feb. 28 we’ll know the answer, but for now, the odds appear to say “yes.” “We’ve got Santorum holding steady in our Michigan forecast,” the New York Times’ Nate Silver tweeted Friday. “About a 75 percent chance to win based on the polling.” Intrade bettors, take heed.

= Rick Santorum on Birth Control =

February 10, 2012-
Forcing religious organizations to provide contraceptives has nothing to do with women’s rights, Republican presidential contender and vocal Catholic Rick Santorum said on Thursday. The comment aligned Santorum with a lineup of conservative critics bashing Democratic President Barack Obama’s rule requiring religious institutions — but not churches — to provide health insurance plans that cover birth control. The rule, announced in January, covers religious-affiliated groups like charities, hospitals and universities. The Catholic Church opposes most methods of birth control and conservatives have painted the rule as an attack on religious freedom from a [|secular president]. Speaking to [|CNN’s John King], the former Pennsylvania senator said: “That’s the Church’s money, and forcing them to do something that they think is a grievous moral wrong. How can that be a right of a woman? That has nothing to do with the right of a woman.” Santorum bills himself as the only [|true conservative] in the field of Republicans vying to win their party’s nomination to challenge Obama in November. He’s backed by [|evangelical leaders] and social conservatives who admire his consistent and at times polemical stances on [|abortion] and [|gay marriage.] He swept nominating contests [| Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado] on Tuesday buoyed by votes from social conservatives. Better than [| expected economic news] and the administration’s move, which was initially viewed as a [|score] for women’s health advocates, have shifted the conversation of an election that most believed would be centered on the economy. Conservative heavyweights including House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Texas Governor Rick Perry and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich have all warned of an [| attack on religious freedom] coming from the White House. Obama also risks losing the [|votes of Catholics] of whom he won 54 percent in 2008. On Thursday, the administration [|back-pedalled] from its position, promising room for compromise but the groundwork for the attacks seems to have been laid. “No, a woman’s right to free contraceptive coverage being covered by someone who believes it’s a grievous moral wrong is not trumping that constitutional right of freedom of religion,” Santorum said.

March 1, 2012-
Former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) on Thursday hammered fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney for an interview Wednesday in which the former Massachusetts governor appeared to state that he did not support an amendment offered by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) aimed at rolling back the Obama administration’s new rules on contraception coverage. Romney’s campaign quickly clarified after Wednesday’s interview that he did support the amendment and blamed the questioner, an Ohio <span class="blog_caption">ick Santorum poses for photos with supporters after a rally at Temple Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., on Wednesday (Michael Patrick - AP) reporter, for incorrectly phrasing a question on the topic. But that hasn’t stopped Romney’s critics – including Democrats and, now, fellow Republicans – from blasting him for the comments. “We saw an insight into what’s in the gut of Governor Romney yesterday,” Santorum told supporters at a rally Thursday morning in Georgia. “He was asked a question about the Blunt amendment, which is about a religious liberty amendment, so not imposing Obamacare’s values on people of faith — not just churches — people of faith in this country.”  Santorum continued that “having a conscience-clause exemption used to be something that Democrats and Republicans all agreed to. Now it’s not.” “When Gov. Romney was asked that question, his knee-jerk reaction was, ‘Oh, I can’t be for it,’ ” Santorum charged. “Well, then after his consultants talk to him, he said, ‘Well, I didn’t understand the question.’ Well, maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. If I was asked that question, my gut reaction. . . would be, ‘You stand for the First Amendment; you stand for freedom of religion.’ ” After a campaign event in North Dakota, meanwhile, Romney reiterated his support for the amendment, which was sponsored by his own presidential campaign’s congressional liaison. “I’m in favor of the Blunt amendment,” Romney told reporters in Fargo when asked about the amendment. Asked to elaborate, Romney said: “Can I elaborate? Yeah, absolutely.” But he did not elaborate on his position – perhaps taking Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly’s advice from a Wednesday night interview that Romney has “the right to remain silent.” Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, had this to say: “Washington insider Sen. Santorum’s ‘gut reaction’ is to ‘take one for the team’ instead of standing up for what he says he believes in. Rick Santorum plays for Team Washington, while Mitt Romney’s team is the American people.”

= Romney, Santorum Split Michigan Vote: =

Mitt Romney may have narrowly won the popular vote in his native state of Michigan, but he will split the state's 30 delegates with rival Rick Santorum. The Associated Press says each candidate won 15 delegates, based on votes in Tuesday's primary. "This is a huge win for us. Let's play it the way it is," Santorum said after a campaign appearance in Tennessee. Romney was the overall delegate winner yesterday because he won all of Arizona's 29 delegates. Arizona is a winner-take-all state.

Michigan gives two delegates to the winner in each of 14 congressional districts, and Romney and Santorum each won seven districts. Two more delegates were awarded by proportion of the statewide vote, and the candidates split those as well. Romney edged Santorum, 41% to 38%, in the popular vote in Michigan, his home state. Michigan lost half of its usual number of delegates because it did not comply with Republican National Committee rules requiring most states to hold primaries after March 1. Romney leads nationally with 167 delegates, followed by Santorum with 87, Newt Gingrich with 32 and Ron Paul with 19, according to the latest AP tally. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination.

= Delegate Count Before Super Tuesday- = = Romney- 167 delegates = = Santorum- 87 delegates = = Gingrich- 32 delegates = = Paul- 19 delegates =



SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS|| **Results** for **U.S. Republican Presidential Primaries**
 * || State || Gingrich || Paul || Romney || Santorum ||  ||   || reporting ||
 * 03/06 || [|AK] ||> 14.1% ||> 24.0% ||> 32.4% ||> 29.2% ||  ||   ||> 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|GA] ||> 47.2% ||> 6.5% ||> 25.9% ||> 19.6% ||  ||   ||> 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|ID] ||> 2.1% ||> 18.1% ||> 61.6% ||> 18.2% ||  ||   ||> 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|MA] ||> 4.6% ||> 9.5% ||> 72.2% ||> 12.0% ||  ||   ||> 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|ND] ||> 8.5% ||> 28.1% ||> 23.7% ||> 39.7% ||  ||   ||> 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|OH] || 14.6% || 9.2% || 37.9% || 37.1% ||  ||   || 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|OK] || 27.5% || 9.6% || 28.0% || 33.8% ||  ||   || 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|TN] || 23.9% || 9.0% || 28.1% || 37.1% ||  ||   || 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|VA] || - || 40.5% || 59.5% || - ||  ||   || 100% ||
 * 03/06 || [|VT] || 8.2% || 25.4% || 39.8% || 23.7% ||  ||   || 99% ||
 * 03/06 || [|WY] || 0% || 2.5% || 55.7% || 30.5% ||  ||   || 26% ||
 * 03/06 || [|WY] || 0% || 2.5% || 55.7% || 30.5% ||  ||   || 26% ||

MITT ROMNEY WINS PUERTO RICO
March 19, 2012 <span style="background-color: #ffff00; margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won Puerto Rico’s Republican primary on Sunday. <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> With about 83 percent of ballots counted, Romney took an overwhelming 83 percent of the vote. By getting more than 50 percent of total votes, Romney will take all 20 of the territory’s delegates. <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Despite spending time campaigning on the island on Wednesday and Thursday, former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania fell far behind Romney, taking about 8 percent of the vote.  <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Romney probably got a boost from his [|unqualified support] for Puerto Rican statehood, the top issue in the race. Santorum, on the other hand, [|faced a backlash] after suggesting that statehood be contingent on Puerto Rico making English its main language. (Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul largely ignored the territory and took a very small share of the vote.). <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Romney also had the support of most of the state establishment, including Gov. Luis Fortuno (R).  <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In 2008 the state GOP held a caucus; only 208 people participated. <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">As primaries go, Puerto Rico’s is not the most critical. There were only [|100,000] registered Republicans in the state as of the 2000 election; the primary was open to all voters. Residents cannot vote in the general election. <span style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But in what’s becoming a delegate race between Romney and Santorum, every little bit counts.