Santorum: I'm the consistent social conservative
Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum listens to a student's question at Oral Roberts University, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
/ APUpdated 7:30 p.m. ET
TULSA, Okla. -- Rick Santorum said on Thursday that his presidential rivals haven't been as consistent as him on gay rights and abortion issues. He also blasted President Obama in unusually harsh terms for what he called the president's insufficient support for Israel.
Addressing an audience of more than 4,000 people at Oral Roberts University, Santorum fielded a student's question about the potential attacks he would receive on those two issues from President Obama if he were to win the Republican nomination.
"The other candidates in this race have the same positions I have on these issues." Santorum said. "At least, that is what they say right now."
He told the audience they should vote for him in the primary if they want a candidate who understands the issues and articulates them consistently. "If you are someone who is a voter who may not agree with me on those issues, or agree with any of us on those issues, who are you going to feel more comfortable with?" he asked.
A poll this week showed Santorum running a distant third behind Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in Oklahoma, but the former senator from Pennsylvania is counting on momentum from his wins in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.
During his speech, Santorum also ripped Obama in unusually harsh terms for his administration's decision to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, telling the audience that it amounted to backing oil-rich Iran over Israel.
"We're throwing Israel under the bus because we know we're going to be dependent upon OPEC," he said. "We're going to say, 'Iran we don't want you to get a nuclear weapon,' wink wink nod nod, 'go ahead, just give us your oil.'"
In a subsequent interview on CNN after the speech, host John King asked the candidate if he really believed the president was undermining Israel's security, and Santorum stood by his remarks.
"This is a president who is not standing by our allies, it's trying to appease, trying to find a way to allow clearly to allow Iran to get this nuclear weapon," he said. "He's doing absolutely nothing in a consequential way to make sure they don't get this weapon."
Santorum also took a swing at his former Senate colleague Barbara Boxer, saying he sharply disagreed with the liberal California Democrat on reproductive and contraception issues.
"Barbara Boxer is sort of a dog whistle for me when it came to the United States Senate," he said. "Every time she went on the floor of the Senate, I just felt this magnet to run. She said woman's rights trump religious rights. Maybe she ought to read the First Amendment again."
Santorum said in the CNN interview that he hoped to be able to release his tax returns within a couple of days. He had promised to do so shortly after Romney released his returns.
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"They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn't get involved in the BEDROOM, we shouldn't get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can't go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we've had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.
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There are many Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian hospitals who shouldn't be forced to provide them either if it's against their beliefs.
Also, they screwed up so bad that they fell down on the one government function that should be the most important. They failed in protecting us from foreign threats. During their watch, we experienced the worst attack in our country's history on American soil. The attack of the World Trade Center in September of 2001 was a failure of our government to protect its citizens from foreign enemies. They even failed to protect our military headquarters, the Pentagon.
Conservatives know how to win elections but they haven't a clue about governing.
Santorum has the momentum and the credentials.
As for me, "give me the liberty to think, feel, marry who I want, speak publicly in the manner I choose, and spit on the Catholic Church or any other church for that matter, or give me death"