Posted on 03/19/2012 7:03:28 PM PDT by Josh Painter
Rick Santorum is coming under fire for saying that the unemployment rate and economic growth are secondary issues to that of freedom in his campaign, a statement that rival Mitt Romney's campaign quickly seized on as being tone-deaf to the plight of out-of-work Americans.
"We need a candidate who's going to be a fighter for freedom. Who's going to get up and make that the central theme in this race because it is the central theme in this race," Santorum told a crowd of about 200 voters during a rally here on Monday. "I don't care what the unemployment rate's going to be. Doesn't matter to me. My campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. It's something more foundational that's going on."
The event had barely ended when Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul e-mailed reporters to offer up the statement as evidence of Santorum being an "economic lightweight," a charge that Romney has been making in recent days. The former Massachusetts governor gave a speech in Chicago on Monday attacking President Obama's stewardship of the economy.
"Wow. Sen. Santorum may not care about the unemployment rate in this country or the nearly 24 million Americans struggling for work, but Mitt Romney does and is running to get people back to work," Saul said. "If anyone needed evidence that Rick Santorum is an economic lightweight, they needn't look any further than his various statements today. We're not going to turn around this economy by replacing one former senator with zero job-creating experience with another senator with zero job-creating experience. He has proven it once again," she wrote.
Romney himself, in a subsequent appearance at Bradley University, reaffirmed his concern for unemployment.
[...]
Santorum sought to clarify his comments to reporters after the event...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Why not just admit that you are a crazy unlce Paul supporter?
Rick is wrong about porn. I mean he's wrong to have an official position at all. He's running for president and the pros and cons of porn are pretty damn irrelevant to the position.
bingo
What a shock .Paul bot using the typical Carholic bashing .
I am Catholic but Saint Rick is becoming a parody.
e needs to stay on topic - economy, energy, ObamaCare.
Freedom, period. This comment by Rick was that he wasn't going to address unemployment, we need to look at the root causes of unemployment which is Obama's policies. Especially Obamacare, that will destroy our freedom. Reagan warned about Socialists taking control of our healthcare. We're here.
Neither Romney nor Obama is going to stop Obamacare. Rick will and it is the most important issue of this election.
Why didnt he say that? How is anyone supposed to know?
I don’t think anyone is disputing Santorum’s intended point about the loss of freedom being the most important issue this election. It’s the words he chose that are the problem. The media loves sound bytes. Santorum is an amateur on the national stage and regularly gives the media sound bytes that make him look bad.
Dead makes a good comment -- presidential candidates should not talk about something like porn. What's the point? Stick with economic liberty. That's a good topic for the President.
Santorum is leaving a string of careless statements that can be used to hurt him, but I’d guess in this case he meant that he doesn’t care about unemployment stats as a main campaign issue, and that the erosion of freedom is more important.
Probably correct, but very poorly stated and still many won’t agree with him. A poor way to make the point about the loss of freedom.
Santorum and Romney! What a pair! Of idiots, that is. Romney states he doesn’t care about the poor, and Santorum doesn’t care about the unemployed. Where does the GOP find these morons???
Meant to include you in my reply #69, since I reference your comment to me.
Dukakis did it when he wore the tank helmet.
Santorum is doing it with statements like this.
Where is NEWT?
We Need Newt.
Who are you trying to kid.
No Catholic mocks Saints !
But your really excited over spreading a heavily edited
Clip spread by Romney bots and pushed by far left CBS !
Intersting company you keep.
It also promotes economic gain through cutting taxes, cutting spending and promoting free, International Trade.
Santorum is truly an idiot. There is nothing in this preposterous speech that even comes close to justifying his original, quite brainless proclamation. It merely illustrates just how incompetent he is and has no business being any where near the Oval Office.
Rick's rhetoric is quaint, but what about, say, my Freedom to be employed in a state without being forced to join some union which will take my dues and use them to advance socialist Tyranny?
Aside form that small issue of Freedom, though, I must opine that Santorum being dismissive of present or future unemployment rates is probably not very wise in this political environment and election year.
Rick's gaffes are starting to mount...
Rick is not the obsessed with ‘porn’. Between the media and the retweeters there’s a lot of people worried about losing porn but he’s not one of them.
But what Rick said time and time again is that he will enforce the laws as written.
Shame on you, Santorum. You didn’t even worry about porn getting caught up in this whole ‘enforce the laws’ crap. Doesn’t get much more insensitive than to refuse protection for porn. </s>
I think that the idea behind Santorum’s remark was that if we get back to a free economy, unemployment will take care of itself. It is the policies from Washington DC that have destroyed our economy.
Even in the best days of Euro-socialism, double - digit unemployment was normal because high taxes and government programs and paychecks compete with business capital. Worse than that, Europe and Japan have experienced persistent population declines in their working age native populations because workers are increasingly unable to afford to raise children and also support pensioners.
We had a perfect candidate at the start of this race. Only one. And that was Rick Perry.
He was dead right on every issue.
Yet the people on this forum ... some of them... used every dirty means possibly to vilify and smear this good man.
It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen on Free Republic.
I’ll never forget it.
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