Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is in Iowa again today on the heels of a new ad he has released that is critical of fellow Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John Huntsman’s failure to sign pledges against abortion. Santorum says candidates need to take a stance and stick with it.
He says “socially conservative voters” have elected Republicans to Washington who have promised to be good social conservatives and then they sort of go there and forget about the issues. “They tend not to highlight them they tend to when push comes to shove, concede ground on these issues,” Santorum says. He says the criticism of Hunstman and Romney is justified.
Santorum says both candidates want to be the Republican nominee, but he says they don’t want to sign “really sort of basic pledges.” Huntsman is the former governor of Utah who just entered the presidential race today, and Texas Governor Rick Perry is also considering a run.
Santorum says the continued addition of Republican candidates isn’t a knock against his candidacy. Santorum says there are a lot of people looking at the race who think if they win the Republican primary, they can become the president of the United States. He says president Obama’s popularity continues to fall as “his foreign policy continues to fall apart” and the economy continues to get worse.
Santorum says the addition of more Republican candidates is also more a comment on the front-runners than it is on him. He says he’s been laying the groundwork needed to win votes with 19 trips to Iowa and 20 to New Hampshire.
“I don’t think it is a reflection on me at all,” Santorum says, “I think it shows that there is a concern whether the perceived front-runners are strong enough to carry this through.” Santorum made his comments during a stop at the state capitol.