At one point, rival Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, complained, “This demonstrates the problem that I’m talking about: There’s always an excuse to do this.”
But it was Mitt Romney, especially interested in preventing Santorum from beating him in his native Michigan, who left the former senator stammering moments later when he accused him of alternately embracing federal family planning funding known as Title X.
Santorum offered his own version of Democrat John Kerry’s famous 2004 “I voted for it before I voted against it” declaration in response.
“I think I was making it clear that, while I have a personal more objection to it, even though I don’t support it, that I voted for bills that included it. And I made it very clear in subsequent interviews that I don’t support that, I’ve never supported it, and have, on an individual basis, have voted against it. That’s why I proposed Title XX to counterbalance it,” said Santorum.
The audience at the Mesa Performing Arts Center responded with boos.
The back-and-forth between Romney and Santorum served to highlight how much Newt Gingrich has slipped out of the national political conversation the past two weeks, after Romney beat him in the Florida primary and Nevada caucuses and Santorum vaulted into the national polling lead with subsequent wins in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri.
Like the others, Gingrich was strongest in attacking President Obama for his handling of the auto industry bailout, and what he branded the administration’s assault on religious liberty and mishandling of Iran’s possible pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
But the former House speaker offered little of the fire-breathing anti-Romney or anti-Santorum criticism he espoused in any of the prior 19 debates.
