This article first appeared online at Politico on June 21, 2011.
Santorum vid: ‘Just like Mitt Romney …’
By: Alexander Burns
Rick Santorum preempts Jon Huntsman’s launch today with a video mocking the former Utah governor’s teaser spots and swatting him on social issues. Santorum’s version of the teaser doesn’t end so well for the biker character. The text: “Today. Hasn’t signed the anti-abortion pledge. Just like Mitt Romney …”
Santorum’s referring to the pledge circulated by the Susan B. Anthony List, which has already given the former Pennsylvania senator an opportunity to tout his anti-abortion credentials and find his political voice a bit. The mention of Mitt Romney is something of a political two-fer: Santorum gets to jab at the frontrunner by name and also feed the narrative that conservatives should be suspicious of both Romney and Huntsman.
Huntsman will have to decide whether to sign the SBA List pledge once he’s formally in the race. His record in Utah was safely anti-abortion and he gave a speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition summit this month saying Republicans should not “focus only on our economic life to the neglect of our human life.”
