#2012 republican primary

“I think it’s a theory — the theory of evolution. And I don’t accept it, you know, as a theory.” -Ron Paul in Texas, 2007.

“I get a kick out of folks who call for equality now, the people on the left, ‘Well, equality, we want equality.’ Where do you think this concept of equality comes from?” said Santorum, according to ABC News. “It doesn’t come from Islam. It doesn’t come from the East and Eastern religions, where does it come from? It comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that’s where it comes from. Don’t claim his rights, don’t claim equality as that gift from God and then go around and say, 'Well, we don’t have to pay attention to what God wants us to do,’” Santorum continued to the enthusiastic crowd. “'We don’t have to pay attention to God’s moral laws.’ If your rights come from God, then you have an obligation to live responsibly in conforming with God’s laws, and our founders said so, right?”

ABC News link. Quotes from Rick Santorum at a town hall in South Carolina, January 2012.

“He [Romney’s Mississippian bodyguard Garrett Jackson] is now turning me into an, I don’t know, unofficial Southerner. And I’m learning to say ‘y'all,’ and I like grits. Strange things are happening to me.” -Mitt Romney campaigning in Mississippi, March 8, 2012.

See the original versionhere.

“It’s unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon…. Syria is their key ally. It’s their only ally in the Arab world. It is also their route to the sea.” -Mitt Romney at the Arizona Republican debate, February 2012.

“This [the Obama administration] is an administration which, as long as you’re America’s enemy, you’re safe. You know, the only people you’ve got to worry about is if you’re an American ally.” -Newt Gingrich at the Arizona Republican debate, February 22, 2012.

“This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war. This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you think the Father of Lies - Satan - would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country. The United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack, in this day and age?…He [Satan] attacks all of us, and he attacks our institutions. The place where he was, in my mind, the most successful and first successful was in academia. He understood the pride of smart people. He attacked them at their weakest: that they were, in fact, smarter than everybody else, and could come up with something new and different. Pursue new truths, deny the existence of truth. Play with it, because they’re smart.” -Rick Santorum at Ave Maria University, 2008. Audio here.

“I was born and raised here. I love the state. It seems right here. Trees are the right height. I like – I like seeing the lakes. I love the lakes. Something very special here. The Great Lakes but also all the little inland lakes that dot the parts of Michigan. I love cars. I don’t know – I mean, I grew up totally in love with cars…. I love cars. I love American cars.” -Mitt Romney in Michigan, February 2012.

But watch the video. The transcript doesn’t do it justice.

“I have two grandchildren — Maggie is 11, Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.” -Newt Gingrich in San Antonio, March 2011.

“[Santorum] lambasted the president’s health care law requiring insurance policies to include free prenatal testing, ‘because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. That, too, is part of Obamacare, another hidden message as to what President Obama thinks of those who are less able than the elites who want to govern our country,’ Santorum said.” -Rick Santorum in Columbus, Ohio, February 2012, via CBS News.

Free prenatal testing is not mandated by the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”).

“Victims of the disease AIDS argue, with no qualms of inconsistency about rights, for crash research programs (to be paid for by people who don’t have AIDS), demanding a cure. And it’s done in the name of rights. The victims demand health care and scream ‘discrimination’ if insurance companies claim they have the right to refuse to issue a policy to someone already infected with the AIDS virus. The rights of the insurance company owners are not considered, while legislation is passed forcing insurance companies to provide insurance demanded by the victims. The individual suffering from AIDS certainly is a victim - frequently a victim of his own lifestyle - but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care.” -From Ron Paul’s 1987 book Freedom Under Siege (pages 22-23).

Paul defended these comments on Fox News in January of 2012. You can see that video here (starting at around 3:30).

“I lived in France in an apartment with no toilet.” -Mitt Romney in a meeting with the Detroit Free Press editorial board, February 16, 2012.

“A number of the apartments I lived in when I lived [in France] didn’t have toilets. We had instead the little pads on the ground, OK? You know how that works, all right. There was a chain behind you with a bucket — it was a bucket affair. I had not experienced one of those in the United States.” -Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, December 2011.

Information about Romney’s mansion in Paris can be found here.

“Sixty years ago, people who did abortions were in the shadows, people who were considered really bad doctors. Now, abortion is something that is just accepted…This is the erosion. And it happens in the medical profession, and it can happen very fast. And I think Obamacare will lead us down that road.” -Rick Santorum at the American Heartland Forum in Columbia, Missouri, February 2012. (Video at 0:38 seconds.)

“Politics has become a really nasty, vicious, negative business and I think it’s disgusting and I think it’s dishonest.“ -Newt Gingrich in an interview with ABC News in Iowa, December 30, 2011.

"Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party: 

abuse of power

anti- (issue): flag, family, child, jobs

betray

bizarre

bosses

bureaucracy

cheat

coercion

"compassion” is not enough

collapse(ing)

consequences

corrupt

corruption

criminal rights

crisis

cynicism

decay

deeper

destroy

destructive

devour

disgrace

endanger

excuses

failure (fail)

greed

hypocrisy

ideological

impose

incompetent

insecure

insensitive

intolerant

liberal

lie

limit(s)

machine

mandate(s)

obsolete

pathetic

patronage

permissive attitude

pessimistic

punish (poor …)

radical

red tape

self-serving

selfish

sensationalists

shallow

shame

sick

spend(ing)

stagnation

status quo

steal

taxes

they/them

threaten

traitors

unionized

urgent (cy)

waste

welfare"

-From Newt Gingrich’s 1990 GOPAC pamphlet, Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.

“Before we went in the Union, [Nevada’s land] was owned entirely by private owners and it has developed all the natural resources, a very big state. So you can imagine how wonderful it would be if land will be or should be returned to the states and then for the best parts sold off to private owners.” -Ron Paul at the Western Republican Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 21, 2011.

“I want as much federal land to be turned over to the state as possible…” -Ron Paul in Elko, Nevada, February 2012. There, he also said he wants to disband the U.S. Department of the Interior.

“We’re sort of new to this stuff, hydrofracking, in Pennsylvania. And [environmentalists are] preying on the Northeast, saying, ‘Look what’s going to happen. Ooh, all this bad stuff’s going to happen. We don’t know all these chemicals and all this stuff.’ …Let me tell you what’s going to happen. Nothing’s going to happen, except they will use this to raise money for the radical environmental groups so they can go out and continue to try to purvey their reign of environmental terror on the United States of America.” -Rick Santorum in Oklahoma City, February 8, 2012.

“One of the key issues is the growing anti-religious bigotry of our elites.” -Newt Gingrich in his victory speech in South Carolina, January 21, 2012. (Video.)

“There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia…Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for ‘religious toleration’ are arrogantly dishonest…America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.” -Newt Gingrich’s Statement on the Proposed “Cordoba House” Mosque Near Ground Zero on Newt.org, July 2010.

“The tax payers shouldn’t have to have money taken out of their pay checks to pay people in government who are our servants who are making a lot more money than we are.” -Mitt Romney, November 2011. (Video.)

Mean annual earnings of full-time private sector American workers in 2010.

Mean annual earnings of full-time federal, state, and local government employees in 2010.

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earned $21.6 million in 2010 and paid 13.9 percent of that amount in income taxes.”-Bloomberg Businessweek, Jan. 24, 2012.

“I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that [Newt Gingrich’s sex scandal involving his second wife]…to make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.” -Newt Gingrich at the CNN Republican primary debate in South Carolina, January 19, 2012. (Video.)

“The GOP’S multimillion dollar ad campaign invoking President Clinton’s relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky was devised by House Speaker Newt Gingrich…reviving the presidential sex scandal just one week before Election Day.”-The Washington Post, October 30, 1998.

“Lemme tell ya something. America is a great nation, because we’re a united nation and those who are trying to divide the nation as you’re trying to do here and as the president is doing are hurting this country, seriously. The right course for America is not to divide America, and try and divide us between one and another, it’s for us to come together as a nation. And if you’ve got a better model, if you think China is better, or Russia is better, or Cuba’s better, or North Korea’s better, I’m glad to hear all about it. But you know what? America’s right, and you’re wrong!” -Mitt Romney in Charleston, South Carolina on January 19, 2012 after being asked “What would you do to support the 99 percent, seeing as you are part of the 1 percent?” (Video at the bottom of this page.)

If you can’t read the text, please click the pic to enlarge.

“What we should do, is [make unemployment insurance] just like welfare…have some sort of either work requirement or job training required as a condition.” -Rick Santorum in the January 16th, 2012 Republican Debate in South Carolina.  (Transcript.)