Flashback: Santorum On Obama, Abortion & Race

Rick Santorum on Sunday insisted he that he questions Barack Obama's worldview rather than his faith , specifically suggesting that ObamaCare's mandate for prenatal testing would encourage abortions. The remarks reminded us of Santorum's comments a year ago indicating that Barack Obama's race ought to determine his view on abortion.

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Gingrich Says GOP Candidates Will Face Serious Questions if They Lose in Their Home State

During an interview on Fox News Sunday Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said that candidates must win races in their home states or face serious questions about continuing in the race. The comment comes as rival Mitt Romney appears to be struggling in Michigan, where the former Massachusetts governor was born and his father was governor, before the state’s primary on February 28.

If Romney loses in Michigan, “I don’t know see what he says the next morning to his donors to stay in the race,” Gingrich said.

That said, Gingrich acknowledged that he must win the March 6 vote in Georgia, where he served as a congressman and has been heavily campaigning over the last week with former candidate Herman Cain. Surging candidate Rick Santorum will run in his home Pennsylvania this April, which appears to be a key swing state in the general election like Romney’s Michigan.

“If any of the three loses our home state … you have, I think, very, very badly weakened candidacies,” Gingrich said. “I was home campaigning for the last two days precisely to say to all of my friends back home, Georgia really matters. You cannot take this for granted.”

Gingrich stopped short of saying he would drop out if he lost Georgia “given the chaos of this race.”

The Associated Press notes that the Republican candidates face a series of nine primaries and four caucuses between now and Super Tuesday on March 6. At stake are 518 delegates, more than three times the number awarded so far. Georgia has the biggest delegate haul at stake, 76. The pro-Romney group Restore Our Future is targeting Gingrich in television ads in the state, according to AP, hoping to deny the former House speaker a sweep of the delegates and leave some on the table for Romney to scoop up.

Gingrich’s full interview on Fox News Sunday:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Mitt Romney In 2002 On His Tax Returns

Romney released his tax returns in January after weeks of pressure from Republican rivals, but that wasn't the first time he took heat on the issue. In 2002, when Romney was running for Governor, Democratic opponent Shannon O'Brien attacked him for not releasing his returns despite the fact that he had pressed Ted Kennedy to do the same in 1994. This was his response.

Source: youtube.com

‘My Child Was Not Stillborn!’: Rick Santorum Gets Heated With Bob Schieffer During Prenatal Testing Discussion

CBS

Rick Santorum clashed with CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer Sunday, which included a tense exchange about the death of the GOP presidential candidate’s infant son.

After asking Santorum about his comments regarding President Barack Obama’s “theology,” Schieffer seized on remarks Santorum had made about prenatal testing the day before.

“One of the mandates is they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in America,” Santorum said during a campaign stop in Ohio Saturday. “Why? Because it saves money in health care. Why? Because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.”

Schieffer asked:”You sound like you’re saying the purpose of prenatal care is to cause people to have abortions…I think any number of people would say that’s not the purpose at all.”

“The bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortion,” Santorum said. Clarifying that he had only referred to prenatal testing, not prenatal care, added: “We’re talking about specifically prenatal testing and specifically amniocentesis, which is a — which is a procedure that creates a risk of miscarriage when you have it and is done for the purposes of identifying maladies of a child in the womb, which in many cases, in fact, most cases, physicians recommend, particularly if there’s a problem, recommend abortion.”

He continued, getting increasingly passionate: “90 percent of Down Syndrome children in America are aborted. So to suggest where does that come from?  I have a child who has Trisomy 18. Almost 100 percent of Trisomy 18 child are encouraged to be aborted. So I know what I’m talking about here.”

“I know you know what you’re talking about, I know that well, I know you also had another child that was stillborn,” Schieffer said.

” — no he was not stillborn, hold on Bob, whoa whoa whoa,” Santorum said.

“Just a minute, just a minute,” Schieffer said, “Didn’t you want to know — ”

“Just hold on,” Santorum interjected. “My child was not stillborn — my child was born alive. He lived two hours and by the way, prenatal testing was done, we had a sonogram, they detected a problem and yes, the doctor said you should consider an abortion. This is typical Bob. This is what goes on in medical rooms around the country. Prenatal testing, amniocentesis, does in fact result more often than not result in abortion.”

Schieffer, first acknowledging that Santorum was “absolutely right” about his son, asked Santorum whether he was advocating to “turn our back on science?”

Santorum said no, but he disagreed with a government mandate.

“People have the right to do it but to have the government force people to provide it free just to me has — is a bit loaded,” he said.

The death of Santorum’s infant son has been raised before during the campaign: Fox News’ Alan Colmes apologized after saying the former Pennsylvania senator and his wife took the body of the two-hour-old baby home and “played with it.”

Watch below, via Mediaite:

New Obama Web Ad Features Entire First Family

It's their official holiday portrait. The first time the whole family has been included in an ad this cycle.

Source: twitpic.com