Santorum trails Romney in his home state of Pennsylvania: poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, in what may be a grim development for his campaign, has lost the lead in his home state of Pennsylvania to front-runner Mitt Romney, according to a poll released on Thursday.
Romney now leads in Pennsylvania with 42 percent to 37 percent for Santorum, according to the Public Policy Polling survey. Ron Paul was at 9 percent and Newt Gingrich at 6 percent, the poll found.
“Mitt Romney has a great chance to deliver a final crushing blow to (Santorum’s) campaign on April 24th,” said Dean Debnam, president of the polling firm.
Santorum has been banking his hopes on recapturing some momentum in the race by winning Pennsylvania’s primary. He is the last remaining obstacle for Romney, who is closing in on the nomination after sweeping Republican contests on Tuesday in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington D.C.
Santorum had been a U.S. senator from that state until 2006, when he was defeated by double digits. A devout Catholic, he is taking several days off the campaign trail to observe the long Easter weekend, his spokesman said.
Pennsylvania’s primary is one of five northeastern states to hold nominating contests on April 24. The group includes New York and Connecticut, where Romney, a former governor of nearby Massachusetts, has been favored to win.
If Santorum loses or scrapes by with just a narrow win in his home state, he will come under increased pressure from senior Republicans to pull out of the race.
With new momentum, Romney accuses Obama of hiding
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican candidate Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Wednesday of being “intent on hiding” his true positions, in a growing war of words between the two men who are increasingly likely to face off in November’s presidential election.
Romney slammed Obama a day after winning three presidential primaries and moving closer to finally clinching the Republican nomination.
The former Massachusetts governor cited remarks by Obama to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week that embarrassed the U.S. president when they were caught on camera. Obama assured the Russian leader that he would have “more flexibility” to work on missile defense after the November 6 election.
“He is intent on hiding. You and I will have to do the seeking,” Romney said in a speech to a conference of news executives. Romney seemed relaxed throughout his speech, which focused exclusively on Obama rather than his Republican rivals.
Romney was speaking at the same conference where Obama attacked him on Tuesday in comments that gave a clear signal that the general election campaign is effectively under way.
Obama mentioned Romney by name, a move he had avoided before then, and criticized him for supporting a Republican budget plan that would make stark cuts in Medicare and other programs for the poor and elderly.
In a wide-ranging speech hitting Obama’s record in office, Romney answered the criticisms.
Romney set to beat Santorum in Wisconsin primary: poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared set to defeat his chief rival Rick Santorum in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, according to a Public Policy Polling survey.
A win there for Romney would be another nail in the coffin for Santorum, a former senator for Pennsylvania and staunch conservative. As the primary contests enter their fourth month, Santorum is facing pressure from some Republicans to bow out of the race to be the party’s nominee to oppose President Barack Obama in November.
Romney was ahead of Santorum by 7 points in Wisconsin, according to the survey by Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling, which was released late Sunday.
Santorum’s hopes of securing the nomination have faded as Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has outpaced him in fundraising, endorsements from establishment Republicans and the tally of state delegates needed to win the nomination.
Romney was also ahead of Santorum by 25 points in Maryland, according to the poll which was roughly in line with other recent surveys.
Maryland and Washington, D.C. also hold primaries on Tuesday.
The poll, which surveyed 609 likely Republican voters in Wisconsin and 500 in Maryland, found Romney gaining support among conservative groups that have previously tended to favor Santorum.
Women boost Obama over Romney in swing states: poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Women voters helped President Barack Obama take a large lead over Republican front-runner candidate Mitt Romney in a dozen battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup poll said on Monday.
The results point to difficulties the Republicans could face among a critical bloc in November’s general election against Obama.
Support for Obama among women under the age of 50 surged from mid-February, the poll found, putting the president ahead of Romney by 51 percent against 42 percent among all voters. Obama led Romney among the women with 54 percent, compared to Romney’s 36 percent.
The poll surveyed 993 registered voters and was taken March 20-25 in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Those are considered battleground states – states that are not leaning strongly toward one party or the other.
The Republican Party has traditionally had a hard sell with women voters, who are more likely to register as Democrats. Republican criticism of birth control played a big role in the party’s race for the presidential nomination in recent weeks, with Romney promising to end Planned Parenthood, which provides family planning services.
In mid-February, Obama trailed Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, by two percentage points and fewer than half of women under the age of 50 said they would vote for Obama. In Monday’s results, more than six in 10 said they would, the poll showed.
In Monday’s poll, as many as 41 percent of women identified themselves as Democrats compared with 25 percent of men.
Santorum loses lead at home to Romney: poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has erased rival Rick Santorum’s lead among voters in Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania which holds a crucial primary next month, a poll on Wednesday showed.
Santorum, who represented the state in Congress for 16 years until he was defeated in a Senate election in 2006, saw his lead over Romney evaporate from 29 points to 2 points in the past month, according to the Franklin and Marshall College poll conducted from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s primary election takes place on April 24, along with liberal northeastern states like New York and Connecticut which Romney is favored to win.
If Santorum loses or scrapes by with a narrow win in Pennsylvania, he will come under pressure from senior Republicans to pull out of the race.
Thirty percent of likely Republican voters said they would vote for Santorum and 28 percent chose Romney, creating a statistical tie, according to the poll.
In February, Santorum led Romney 45 percent to 16 percent, the poll said.
Santorum’s drop in Pennsylvania can be attributed to his emphasis on social conservativism over the past month, the director of the poll said. In and around Philadelphia, Republicans are moderate on issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage.
Santorum swears while chewing out reporter
Republican hopeful Rick Santorum cursed during an angry exchange with a New York Times reporter on Sunday, casting a shadow on the image he’s crafted as a social conservative and Christian candidate, and giving fodder to critics who are calling it the “the latest tantorum” meltdown.
At a rally in Wisconsin, a reporter questioned Santorum about calling his rival, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, “the worst Republican” to run against Democratic President Barack Obama. In an earlier speech Santorum equated health care legislation enacted during Romney’s governorship of Massachusetts with Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul.
Visibly annoyed, Santorum asked the reporter, “What speech did you listen to?” and told him to “stop lying.” After accusing the reporter and the media in general of disregarding the truth, Santorum cursed before shaking his head and walking away.
Santorum won the Louisiana primary handily over the weekend with backing from the state’s many Christian evangelicals. A former footnote in the primary race, Santorum has found momentum from evangelical Christians who suspect Romney’s record and his Mormon religion. Santorum has staked his campaign on his image as a devout Catholic.
Watch the video here from CBS News:
Photo credit: REUTERS/Darren Hauck (Santorum speaks to supporters at the Ledgeview Center in the Ledgeview Bowling Lanes in Fond du Lac Wisconsin)
Rick Santorum makes appeal to women, new campaign strategy?
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum hailed the influence of strong, independent women on Tuesday night, a turnaround from his past statements that critics have called sexist or anti-women.
In a concession speech given just as rival Mitt Romney won the Republican presidential primaries of Arizona and Michigan, Santorum took the chance to tell voters “a little more about who Rick Santorum is” and sang the praises of his 93-year-old grandmother, his wife Karen, a former lawyer who gave up work to raise their family, and their daughter Elizabeth who campaigns for her dad on her own.
“I grew up with a very strong mom, someone who was a professional person who taught me a lot of things about… balancing work and family, and doing it well, and doing it with a big heart and commitment,” he said.
In his excitement, Santorum also mistakenly referred to the “men and women” who signed the Declaration of Independence.
“I’ve been very, very blessed, very blessed with great role models for me, as someone who goes out and tries to do the job I’m doing right now, to balance the rigors of running a campaign and trying to maintain a good and strong family,” he said.
Santorum has seen a surge in support from women since winning nominating contests in Iowa, Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. But in Michigan, he failed to rally that support from married and unmarried women.
Santorum’s attempt to involve women in his vision for America could be motivated by the fact that he needs to appeal to a broader swathe of women that includes moderates and independents as well as those further to the right.
WikiLeaks suspect Manning defers plea, court-martial begins
FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) – U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, accused of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history, deferred a plea in a military court arraignment on Thursday, marking the first step in a court-martial that could land him in prison for life.
In Thursday’s procedure, Manning, 24, was formally charged with 22 counts including aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet and theft of public property. Military prosecutors say Manning downloaded more than 700,000 classified or confidential documents and transferred thousands to WikiLeaks, which promotes leaking government and corporate information.
Manning’s plea deferral allows his defense team time to strategize and see the outcome of several motions to be heard before the trial begins, which could be as late as August.
“It basically leaves their options open,” said a legal expert with the Military District of Washington, the Army command unit for the capital region, who was present at the arraignment. The expert could not be named under rules imposed on media covering the proceedings.
When asked if he understood his rights to counsel, Manning, in a dark green military dress uniform and black-rimmed military glasses, spoke quickly but forcefully. “Yes, your honor,” he said.
Manning’s attorney, David Coombs, announced that Manning would defer his plea as well as a decision on whether to face trial by a military judge or a panel of military members, made up of senior officers or enlisted members of rank no lower than Manning’s.
At the beginning of the arraignment, Manning entered from a back door and walked briskly to the front of the room. During the proceedings, he leaned forward on to a desk, occasionally conferring in whispers with Coombs.
Obama sings again, this time blues with B.B. King, Mick Jagger
President Barack Obama gave what appeared to be an impromptu performance of “Sweet Home Chicago” during a blues concert Tuesday night at the White House in celebration of Black History Month.
At the end of an evening of performances from the likes of B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, Shemekia Copeland and others, Obama grabbed a mic from the stage and crooned, “Come on, baby don’t you wanna go,” part of the popular blues standard.
A month ago, Obama sang a little Al Green — a moment captured on video and viewed thousands of times over. It was seen as having added cool points to the president. Afterwards First Lady Michelle said Obama sings to her all the time.
Whether Tuesday’s performance was really impromptu, or staged as another way to help the president’s image during an election year, we may never know. One thing we do know is that Republican candidates like Mitt Romney have not had the same success in musical performance.
Obama called the blues “music with humble beginnings,” with roots in slavery and segregation in the United States.
Obama said, “Because their music teaches us that when we find ourselves at a crossroads, we don’t shy away from our problems. We own them. We face up to them. We deal with them. We sing about them. We turn them into art.”
See the video here from PBS. Obama sings at about 47 seconds.
Rights advocates press White House while China’s Xi visits
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – While China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, enjoyed center stage in Washington on Tuesday, the wife of a jailed Chinese rights lawyer and other opponents of Beijing’s grip on dissent said the Obama administration should increase pressure on China.
The White House has said it always presses human rights concerns in talks with Chinese leaders.
“On critical issues like human rights, we will continue to emphasize what we believe is the importance of recognizing the aspirations and rights of all people,” President Barack Obama said during Xi’s visit to the White House.
But in a hearing before a congressional panel and protests outside the White House, opponents of China’s one-party government said they feared that international worries about jailed dissidents and stifled speech in China were being muffled by economic interests and geopolitics.
“I had thought up to now that the Obama administration was strongly acting on my husband’s behalf. But I am saddened and surprised it has appeared to downplay China human rights concerns before this visit,” said Geng He, the wife of Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese rights lawyer whose secretive imprisonment has drawn criticism from the U.N. human rights body.
Geng told a congressional panel hearing that her request to see Vice President Joe Biden to discuss her husband’s case had not received a reply.
“Such self-censorship by the United States gives license to the Chinese government to act with impunity,” she said in remarks prepared for the hearing of the Congressional Executive Commission on China.
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