He advocates halving the federal corporate tax and abolishing it altogether for manufacturers. He favors nuclear energy, drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas and repealing the healthcare overhaul.
Obama's push for green energy, Santorum said, is "a boondoggle." He does not believe Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, as Perry has said, but he does advocate changes.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, October 05, 2011 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 News Desk 1 inches; 45 words Type of Material: Correction
Rick Santorum: An article in the Oct. 2 Section A about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he had not won any straw polls. In fact, he won a straw poll in South Carolina in May and one in Pennsylvania, his home state, in September.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, October 09, 2011 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 News Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
Rick Santorum: An article in the Oct. 2 Section A about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that he had not won any straw polls. Santorum won a straw poll in South Carolina in May and one in Pennsylvania, his home state, in September.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, January 08, 2012 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 News Desk 1 inches; 70 words Type of Material: Correction
Rick Santorum: An article in the Jan. 7 Section A about the New Hampshire primary reported that GOP candidate Rick Santorum said in 2005 that gay marriage is no different from "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." He said this in an interview with the Associated Press in 2003. A Los Angeles Times article on Oct. 2, 2011, also gave the incorrect 2005 date.
When they aren't ignoring him, debate moderators like Chris Wallace of Fox News have used Santorum as a battering ram. "Is Gov. Perry soft on immigration?" Wallace asked him last month.
"I am happy to get the airtime," Santorum said.
Santorum's combative stance against gay rights, particularly his remark during a 2005 interview that gay marriage is no different from "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be," have distinguished him as a hero of those who oppose gay rights and brought him a passel of trouble from activists who support them.
He has become the object of an attack that has attached a raunchy, fake definition to his name on Google. Santorum has described it as a "jihad" against him. Google has refused to intercede.
The issue of gay rights flared again in the last debate, when Santorum told Stephen Hill, a gay soldier, that he would reinstitute the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Critics knocked him for failing to chastise the audience members who booed at Hill, and for failing to thank Hill for his service.
"In a perfect world," Santorum said, he would have thanked the soldier. "I don't stay awake at night thinking about this." As for the booing, he said he didn't hear it.
While not rising even to flavor of the week, Santorum is getting more attention lately. Reporters from two major newspapers showed up in South Carolina to follow him around. A former paid contributor for Fox News who has publicly aired some discontent with his old network, he was nevertheless a featured guest on two of the network's prime-time shows last week.
But jockeying among states for primary and caucus dates means the first votes are probably a mere 90 days away.
Bad news for the tortoise in the race.
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