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GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday took GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney to task for his past as a self-described “independent” who claimed he did not want to “return to the days of Reagan-Bush. Santorum, speaking to supporters at the Jelly Belly factory – which had honored President Ronald Reagan in the past for promoting the jelly bean – asked which candidate would be pull together the “Reagan coalition” and win swings states, which are “vitally important” for winning the presidential election.(Snip) “Governor Romney said that after the Etch-a-Sketch flap that he was going to run as a conservative in...

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Miles away in Packers country, Rick Santorum watched the Louisiana Republican primary night returns at the Titletown Brewery in Green Bay and took to the podium to thank Louisiana voters for their support while looking forward to the race in Wisconsin. “To the people of Louisiana, thank you very much. You have come through and come through in a big way,” Santorum said. “I just want to thank you for making a very clear and crisp statement and that is you don’t believe as the pundits have said that this race is over. You didn’t get...

Early results from exit polls of Louisiana Republican presidential primary voters show Rick Santorum carried the state with a broad base of enthusiastic supporters and his widest margins of the campaign over Mitt Romney among the conservatives and evangelicals who have lifted his campaign across the South. True believers: About two-thirds of those who turned out today said they strongly backed their candidate, among the highest levels seen in entrance and exit polls conducted during this year's nomination contest. Santorum was the primary benefactor of voters' enthusiasm. Among the most fervent voters, Santorum topped Romney by double-digits, while the two...

More than 30,000 silver coins have been found by archaeologists working at the site of a new city-centre hotel. The hoard, believed to date from the third-century, was unearthed about 450 feet from the historic Roman Baths. Experts believe the “treasure trove” is the fifth largest hoard ever discovered in Britain and the largest from a Roman settlement. The coins, which have now been sent to the British Museum for further analysis, are fused together in a large block. This makes identification and counting difficult and conservators at central London Museum expect the task of analysing the coins to take...

And they say bipartisanship is dead. Wednesday morning was supposed to be a high point for Mitt Romney, who secured one of the the most sought-after endorsements of the cycle in former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush after an easy win in Illinois. Instead, a coalition of Democratic and Republican political operatives used every possible tool at their disposal, from cutting-edge social media to old-school political theater, to spoil his day completely. The story began with a gaffe by Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, who responded to a CNN reporter’s question about whether his candidate had moved too far to the right...

The Race in Illinois Mitt Romney and his allies have pounded Rick Santorum on television and radio, especially in the expensive market of Chicago, where the suburban vote could prove decisive for Mr. Romney. Mr. Santorum was still hoping for a strong vote from downstate Illinois — abutting two states where he won, Iowa and Missouri — but his aides indicated that their hopes were fading in light of the heavy advertising campaign against him. Mr. Romney’s aides believe a comfortable victory could be at hand on Tuesday, but Mr. Santorum and the rest of the field showed no signs...

Memphis, Tennessee -- With just over three minutes left in the state championship, Coach Penny Hardaway called a timeout. He didn't like what he was seeing. Down by 15 points, his middle schoolers were quitting. It stood against everything he had instilled in them: Don't use the inner city as an excuse to fail. You can overcome your circumstances. Always dream big. The former NBA All-Star and greatest basketball player in Memphis history huddled his team of 12 together. He looked them in the eyes. He could see his reflection from 25 years ago: young teens from the city's roughest...

The fast food chain Chick-Fil-A, which has come under attack in the past for the conservative Christian values of its owners, is now fighting homosexual activists who want to see the restaurant kicked off college campuses across the country. According to a Baptist Press report, the company has been at the center of controversy on at least nine campuses, including Duke University, Northeastern University, and New York University (NYU). Students who want to see the restaurant kicked off campus or blocked from coming point to its donations to conservative Christian charities as evidence of its “anti-gay” agenda. According to IRS...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The focus is on the deep South in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, with Mississippi and Alabama holding primaries Tuesday. In a CBS News-New York Times poll out Monday morning, GOP voters nationwide give Rick Santorum a four-point edge over Mitt Romney, 34 percent to 30 percent, with Newt Gingrich getting 13 percent and Ron Paul 8 percent. But 73 percent say they expect Romney will get the Republican nod. We all know about good ole Southern hospitality, but for Romney, the South has been a bit unfriendly. He may have just enough friends this...

The Michigan Republican Party voted to break a delegate tie Wednesday night, awarding 16 delegates to Mitt Romney and 14 to Rick Santorum. The decision, which broke a 15-15 tie that would have resulted under the pre-primary interpretation of the rules, caused disbelief at Rick Santorum’s campaign. A spokesman rejected the decision. Even Romney supporters in the Michigan GOP said the decision was unfair to Santorum. “I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules,” said former Attorney General Mike Cox said after a 4-2 vote by a Michigan GOP credentialing committee, according to the AP. “I’d love to...

On the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, a tour bus pulled up to the the snow-covered student union. Marilyn Musgrave, Maggie Gallagher, and other pro-life women were in the middle of a six-day bus tour to rally support for Rick Santorum in the crucial Midwestern state. Santorum will need the help of women voters to pull off a victory on Mitt Romney’s home turf and the women on the “Leadership for Life” tour say they believe he’s going to get it, despite weeks of controversy in the national press over his aggressively pro-life record, including his unapologetic opposition...

A Japanese University has provided a $10million grant to help see the reconstruction of one of the oldest known boats in the world, and the process has begun this week in Egypt, near the Giza Pyramid. With the help of the grant from Waseda University archaeologists on Monday began restoration on the 4,500-year-old almost 140ft (43 metre) so-called 'solar barque', which has shown signs of being used during the life of its owner Khufu(King Cheops) but was apparently also meant to carry him into the afterlife. Its 'sister' boat has already been restored and is housed in a specially built...

Rick Santorum has wiped out Mitt Romney’s lead in Arizona, according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Romney took 39 percent in the ARG poll, followed by Santorum at 35 percent, Newt Gingrich at 15 percent and Ron Paul at 11 percent. The poll has a four percent margin of error. If the poll is not an outlier, it’s a shocking development just three days before the Feb. 28 Arizona primary.

4 months to the California Primary, but fresh after caucus wins in Colorado and Minnesota and in Missouri's non-binding primary, Rick Santorum draws to within a whisker of nominal frontrunner Mitt Romney, 33% for Romney, 31% for Santorum, effectively even, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KGTV-TV San Diego and KFSN-TV Fresno. Santorum leads Romney among seniors, among evangelicals, among pro-life voters, among Tea Party members, among those who say they are "very conservative," and in the Central Valley region of California. Romney leads among women, among younger voters, among moderates, and among...

A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures. Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory. Louise Schofield, an archaeologist and former British Museum curator, who headed the excavation on the high Gheralta plateau in northern...

In my previous post on the alleged ballot access and delegate count issues of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, I went into great detail on the exact number of delegates that Gingrich wouldn’t have access to because of his ballot qualification issues. After Santorum’s 3 victories Tuesday, I think that his candidacy now merits the same level of detailed analysis. State by state in order of their dates of voting, here are the states that Santorum will not have the ability to win all of the delegates from.

Rick Santorum is running ahead of his rivals in Tennessee, a stronghold of evangelical Christians that votes on March 6, Super Tuesday. Thirty four percent of likely Republican primary voters said they were backing Santorum, while 27% named Mitt Romney, 16% backed Newt Gingrich and 13% picked Ron Paul. The poll was taken by American Research Group February 8-9, when voters would have known about Santorum's sweep of voting contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.

A Pennsylvania couple trapped, of all things, a purple squirrel on Sunday. Percy and Connie Emert, of Jersey Shore, Pa. caught the unusual animal when trying to keep birds safe from the rodents. "We have bird feeders out in our yard, and the squirrels are constantly into them," said Jersey Shore resident Connie Emert. "My husband traps them and then sets them free elsewhere so they don't get into your bird feeders." Emert said she had spotted a purple squirrel on her property but no one believed her.

For all the attention paid to the clout of fiscally focused tea party conservatives and of the primacy of jobs in the 2012 election, Rick Santorum’s trifecta victories Tuesday night are a good reminder of the powerful role religious conservatives play in the GOP. They fueled Santorum’s wins in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado – and his earlier victory in the Iowa caucuses. But why, exactly, do religious conservatives love the former senator from Pennsylvania? There are obvious reasons – his advocacy against abortion and same-sex marriage, for instance – but plenty of less obvious ones, too. Here’s my list. What...

With all the focus on the bruising battle between ex-house Speaker Newt Gingrich and the front-runner, Mitt Romney, very little attention is being paid to the only other contender to have won a state. That's the former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Unfortunately his victory in Iowa was hardly noticed because on the night itself it was Romney who was ahead by eight votes. The process of certifying the result shifted the total so that two and a half weeks later Santorum was officially declared the winner by a margin of 34 – but by that time the narrative had moved...