Ames Tribune - Santorum: Iowans 'Can Gave a Profound Impact'

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By Luke Jennett

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's Iowa tour continued Saturday with a stop at the rural Roland home of Scott and Susan Hurd, where he delivered a speech to a small group of attendees in the Hurd's rustic barn.

Despite telling reporters that he and his staff hadn't "designed our campaign around winning the Straw Poll," Santorum's speech included pleas for attendees to sign up to attend the event in Ames next weekend.

"You here in Iowa have a special privilege," Santorum said. "You actually can have a profound impact on who the next president of the United States is, who will lead this country, who will help restore and renew this country."

Santorum and his family have been on a 51-city tour of Iowa in anticipation of the Ames Straw Poll. He said that over the last 2 1/2 weeks, he'd appeared at roughly 106 events asking Iowans for their support at the event.

Santorum spent an hour talking with the 50 or so attendees at the event before making his remarks from a hay wagon at the front of the barn as staffers dished out pie and ice cream.

The former Pennsylvania senator's remarks began with a critique of President Barack Obama's new national health law, which he said was a critical juncture in the country's path which, if unchecked, would destroy American freedom.

"Obamacare is the game changer for America," he said. "It throws out the playbook. There's a reason that, for 100 years, the left has been trying to pass national healthcare. Because they know that once every single American is dependant upon the government for their life and for their health, they got you. And freedom is wiped out, because now you are dependant upon them."

Santorum related a conversation he had with Fox News' Juan Williams, in which Santorum told him the Democrats would lose the next election after trying to shove the healthcare program "down the throats of the American people."

"And he said this to me: "Well, let me tell you what the White House just told us: "We believe Americans love entitlements. And once we get them hooked on this entitlement, they will never let it go."'

"That's how they see you, as people who cannot provide for themselves, people who need to be dependant. People that, if they get their hooks into you, will never let you go."

Santorum also spoke briefly about his well-known stances against abortion and gay marriage, likening the latter to the slavery debates that took place between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas in 1958.

"There are people in this race who say, if the state of New York or the state of New Hampshire want to pass gay marriage, then that's fine with them," Santorum said. "It's not fine with me.

"Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas had a little debate about whether states have the right to do wrong. If the institution that these states are propagating is wrong and harmful to the family, the states may have the legal right to do it, but as far as I'm concerned, they don't have the moral right to do it, and we should stand up and fight against what they're doing."

Santorum also noted he stood alone among current Republican hopefuls in that he is the only one attending Tuesday's Straw Poll debate that has defeated an incumbent Democrat. However, he acknowledged he isn't as high-profile as many of the other candidates, something he attributed to a leftist media conspiracy.

"The national media has done a very good job of ignoring Rick Santorum," he said. "Gallup takes a poll every month, and the first one I paid attention to was in March of this year. And I looked at it again when it just came out a few weeks ago, and I noticed something: every single Republican candidate's name recognition was higher, except mine. Everybody else was being covered and promoted by the national media, even people that are below me in the polls, even people who most people say have no chance of ever getting the nomination.

"Why do you think they're doing that? Well, is the national media for someone who has strong conservative convictions, who can beat democratic incumbents in areas of the country that we have to win to defeat the president? Or do they think, maybe the best way to get rid of this guy is to simply suffocate him by making sure that nobody talks about him?"

Santorum took questions from the audience after his main remarks. He advocated the closing of the boarders, something he said the last two presidents haven't had the will to accomplish, and said Obama had erred significantly when he announced a pull-out date for troops in Afghanistan.

Santorum's next appearance in Ames will be at Café Diem from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 8.

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