bjbjLULU JEFFREY BROWN: On this Presidents
Day, the Republicans who would be president
drove home their points in key upcoming primary
states.
And the latest seeming front-runner drew crowds
and criticism.
Rick Santorum's rise in the polls continued
today heading into next week's primary contest
and two weeks before Super Tuesday.
The new Gallup tracking poll showed Santorum
leading with 36 percent of Republican voters.
Mitt Romney is eight points back at 28 percent.
Next is Newt Gingrich at 13 percent.
And Ron Paul comes in fourth at 11 percent.
Polls out yesterday showed Santorum ahead
in Oklahoma and in Ohio, an upcoming Super
Tuesday state where he grabbed support from
the state's attorney general, who previously
endorsed Mitt Romney.
In Ohio today, the former Pennsylvania senator
continued a line of attack against President
Obama which he had begun yesterday, arguing
that global warming is -- quote -- "not climate
science, but political science."
RICK SANTORUM (R): They have nothing to do
with real cost-benefit analysis, real understanding
of how we have to value both the environment
and its impact on man and the world.
They have radical ideas.
JEFFREY BROWN: Over the weekend, Santorum
also drew attention for how he described -- quote
-- "the president's agenda" at a rally in
Columbus, Ohio.
RICK SANTORUM: It's about some phony ideal,
some phony ideal, some phony theology, oh,
not a theology based on the Bible, a different
theology.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yesterday, on ABC's "This Week,"
Obama campaign strategist Robert Gibbs said
the comments went too far.
ROBERT GIBBS, Obama campaign strategist: I
can't help but think that those remarks are
well over the line.
It's wrong.
It's destructive.
It makes it virtually impossible to solve
the problems that we all face together as
Americans.
BOB SCHIEFFER, "Face the Nation": He's the
man of the hour in Republican politics.
JEFFREY BROWN: But that same day, on CBS's
"Face the Nation," Santorum defended his remarks.
RICK SANTORUM: I wasn't suggesting the president
is not a Christian.
I accept the fact that the president is a
Christian.
I just said that when you have a world view
that elevates the Earth above man and says
that we can't take those resources because
we're going to harm the Earth by things that
are -- that frankly are just not scientifically
proven.
. . JEFFREY BROWN: Meanwhile, Santorum's Republican
opponents continue to campaign in crucial
Super Tuesday states.
In Ohio today, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romney insisted he's the only candidate capable
of beating President Obama in November.
MITT ROMNEY (R): I have had the experience
of leading.
I have led four different enterprises.
I happen to think that one of the criteria
for selecting a president ought to be, has
this person led something before?
Our current president had not.
And I think we ve seen the consequence of
that in some of the errors he's made.
JEFFREY BROWN: In Tulsa, Okla., former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich said he's not planning
on drop out of the race any time soon.
And continuing to focus on states with caucuses,
Texas Rep. Ron Paul turned his attention on
North Dakota.
Today, his campaign said it had raised $4.5
million in January.
Nonetheless, most attention today was on Santorum,
who has seen his stock rise since winning
contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri
three weeks ago.
That scrutiny will only increase as his numbers
rise in Romney's home state of Michigan, site
of one of next week's two key primary contests.
And late today, the newest Gallup poll was
released showing Santorum up by 10 points
over Mitt Romney.
And we take a closer look now at Rick Santorum's
rise with Susan Page, Washington bureau chief
of USA Today, and from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
Terry Madonna, director of the Center for
Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and
Marshall College.
Susan, start with some context here.
Who is Rick Santorum speaking to or reaching
out to?
And what kind of reception is getting on the
trail?
SUSAN PAGE, USA Today: He's getting a great
reception among Republican primary voters.
This is a group of voters that is very conservative,
lots of Tea Party supporters.
A majority of them in some states like Michigan
say they are evangelical or born-again Christians.
So when he talks about public education or
about global warming in the way that he's
doing, this has really drawn him big crowds
and brought him to a standing in the poll
and sustained a standing in the poll that
is pretty remarkable.
On the other hand, there are big risks for
him in audiences that are also hearing what
he's saying.
And that would be more moderate Republicans
and especially the people who you turn to
when you're the nominee in a general election,
like independent voters and women voters.
They may be hearing some of the things he's
saying and thinking, is this someone I would
really feel comfortable with in the Oval Office?
JEFFREY BROWN: I'm also wondering after so
many months where the economy was the main
focus of all this, to turn to these kinds
of issues -- you just named some of them -- but
also in the past couple of days prenatal care,
you mentioned public school education, birth
control, health care mandate, does he see
these as these issues in a sense, as opposed
to economic issues?
SUSAN PAGE: The social conservative issues
have been his calling card at the beginning,
have sort of made him different, say, from
Mitt Romney.
But he has been trying to look like a more
three-dimensional candidate, to talk about
foreign policy, for instance, policy toward
Iran, to talk about manufacturing policy.
I was with him in Detroit last Thursday when
he addressed the Detroit Economic Club, talking
about the deficit, talking about economic
policy, talking about the manufacturing sector
and how to encourage it.
And he's had some appeal in his home state
of Pennsylvania, as I'm sure Terry will talk
about, with the kind of voters, the kind of
blue-collar voters that predominate in places
like Michigan and Pennsylvania and in Ohio.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Terry Madonna, let me
bring you in there.
You ve followed Santorum for a long time.
Is this -- the appeal to conservatives and
talking about social issues, has that been
part of who he is for as long as he's been
in politics?
TERRY MADONNA, Center for Politics and Public
Affairs, Franklin and Marshall College: Yeah.
Well, Susan is exactly right.
I mean, when he started, for example, in 1980,
when he defeated an incumbent Democrat, no
one gave then Senator Santorum -- or then
Rick Santorum, lawyer Santorum, a chance to
win that race in a Democratic district.
And he amassed lots of volunteers, many of
whom were pro-life.
Then he won his Senate seat in 1994 with the
help of the Christian coalition.
And he was solidly pro-life.
But the fact of the matter is, until you get
to the late 1990s, it doesn't become sort
of an overarching, overreaching issue, compelling
issue, the way it certainly has become in
the last decade.
He talked about fiscal matters, government
reform, tax policies.
That's what got him elected in 1990 to the
House and what got him elected in 1994 in
the Senate.
The other thing that Susan points out that
is, I think, very important, he's the only
one of the four Republican candidates who
had the niche among social conservatives.
He could always sort of rely on them.
And in the polls that I have done and others
have done, Tea Party activists are overwhelmingly
social conservatives.
So, he could reach that blend of fiscal conservatism,
small government, limited government, get
rid of the deficits.
at the same time, he could talk about social
issues.
JEFFREY BROWN: And, Terry, what about as a
legislator in the state and then in the Senate?
What became the key sort of issues that he
worked on or became associated with?
One was welfare reform, right?
TERRY MADONNA: Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, he was the floor leader for welfare
reform.
By the way, that's the first time we really
see this aspect of sort of the religious issues,
moral issues come to play, when he fought
for and insisted on faith-based grants and
tax cut -- you know, use of the money in welfare
to go to faith-based organizations.
As a senator he did -- and his critics are
accurate -- he did fight and brought home
hundreds of millions of dollars for Pennsylvania
projects.
He supported minimum wage.
He was never cozy or close to the unions,
but he was certainly helpful to U.S. Steel.
He had worked on projects for the pharmaceutical
and technology industries in the southeastern
part of the state.
He was a typical sort of light-blue, if I
can, senator who could not ignore the interests
of the state.
JEFFREY BROWN: Okay.
Well, now, Susan, you talked about some of
the risks of getting into some of these issues.
Now you have, of course, the other Republicans
hitting back.
You have, I guess what you would call the
Republican mainstream sort of expressing some
worry, some publicly, some, you know, behind
the scenes.
What are you hearing there?
SUSAN PAGE: I think there's tremendous concern
among Republicans in Washington, among elected
officials, including members of the House
who are going to run, be running with whoever
the presidential nominee is in November, about
Rick Santorum and his ability to appeal to
a broader electorate than the electorate we
see in, say, the Iowa caucuses.
I think there is talk about whether -- if
Rick Santorum wins in Michigan next Tuesday,
that would be a catastrophic event for Mitt
Romney and raise questions about a rather
smooth path to the nomination perhaps for
Rick Santorum.
And would the Republican elites then try to
step in, in some way, draft somebody new to
get into this race?
Or could you get to a convention where no
one had a mathematical clinch on the nomination
and you might have negotiations about who
was going to get that prize?
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Terry Madonna, I suppose
one thing that Republican leaders would be
worried about is exactly what happened to
Rick Santorum in 2006.
He lost, and he lost real big, right, in his
home state.
What happened there?
TERRY MADONNA: Yes, by -- yes, by -- well,
yes, in 2006 by 18 points to Bob Casey.
Well, it was the -- no doubt about it, the
Democratic wave, the Iraq war election.
There was also his social conservatism hurt
him -- back to Susan's pointing, really hurt
him in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania,
in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where -- Now,
Sen. Casey was pro-life, just as Rick Santorum
was, but I think Sen. Santorum's outspokenness
and some of the provocative things that he
had said about gays, about abortion and Supreme
Court decisions, and about women's role in
the work force, very provocative.
Sen. Casey used some of that against him in
the campaign.
And then there was his residency.
He had a home in Virginia.
Sen. Casey made the argument that he wasn't
a resident of Pennsylvania anymore and his
kids were going to school, paid for by the
taxpayers of Pennsylvania while they lived
in Virginia.
It was a cyber-school.
All in all, I mean, it wasn't a good year
for Santorum.
It's like the revolution had simply run away
from him.
And he lost in the vital areas of the states,
in Pennsylvania and Virginia and Florida and
Missouri, that -- that Republicans are going
to have -- a Republican candidate is going
to have to win or he's not going to win the
electoral votes of those swing states.
JEFFREY BROWN: And, Susan, just briefly, what
about President Obama and his advisers?
Do you sense they're taking Rick Santorum
a little more seriously now?
SUSAN PAGE: Well, taking him a little more
seriously because he looks a little more serious.
But I have got to say that they continue to
think that Mitt Romney is the stronger general
election candidate.
And the longer Rick Santorum stays in this
beating up on Mitt Romney, that's fine with
them.
If he ends up being the nominee, I think they
think that would all right as well, although
of course there is some history for watching
out what you wish for.
I remember the first campaign I covered in
1980 where the Carter people were so pleased
that Ronald Reagan had the nomination.
That didn't turn out the way they had hoped.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Susan Page, Terry
Madonna, thank you both very much.
SUSAN PAGE: Thank you, Jeff.
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place JEFFREY BROWN: On this Presidents Day,
the Republicans who would be president drove
home their points in key upcoming primary
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who would be president drove home their points
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