The question drew boos from the audience and impassioned statements from the four candidates on the stage in Mesa, Arizona, last night.

“Since birth control is the latest hot topic, which candidate believes in birth control , and if not why?,” was the question posed via cnnpolitics.com.

It sparked a lengthy discourse by the candidates on religious freedom, contraception, and family structure. None of the White House hopefuls directly responded to the question.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has taken on the media in previous debates, said it was a legitimate question before questioning CNN moderator John King and zeroing in on Democrat Barack Obama.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney provided backup, saying Obama had launched “the worst attack on religious conscience in the history of the United States.”

Here are more comments from that segment of the two-hour debate.

SANTORUM:  Over 40 percent of children born in America are born out of wedlock.  How can a country survive if children are being raised in homes where it’s so much harder to succeed economically? It’s five times the rate of poverty in single-parent households than it is in two-parent homes. We can have limited government, lower tax — we hear this all the time, cut spending, limit the government, everything will be fine. No, everything’s not going to be fine.

ROMNEY:  This isn’t an argument about contraceptives, this is a discussion about, are we going to have a nation which preserves the foundation of the nation, which is the family, or are we not?

ROMNEY: When you have 40 percent of kids being born out of wedlock, and among certain ethnic groups the vast majority being born out of wedlock, you ask yourself, how are we going to have a society in the
future?  Because these kids are raised in poverty in many cases, they’re in abusive settings.  The likelihood of them being able to finish high school or college drops dramatically in single-family homes.  And we haven’t been willing to talk about this.

RON PAUL: If you voted for Planned Parenthood like the senator has, you voted for birth control pills.
And you literally, because funds are fungible, you literally vote for abortions because Planned Parenthood gets the money — “Oh, I’ll buy birth control pills,” but then they have the money left over to do the
abortion. So that’s why you have to have a pretty strong resistance of voting for these bunches of bills put together.  Planned Parenthood should get nothing.

In post debate commentary, CNN senior political analyst David Gergen said: “There are a lot of women out there on Twitter who believe that these candidates really live in the past” and “it will be interesting to see how that plays out.”

Emily’s List, which supports pro-choice Democratic women candidates tweeted: “Most Insulting Rhetoric: @MittRomney for “This argument isn’t about contraceptives” & dismissing the discussion of women’s health #cnndebate

Santorum, who has been at the center of the debate over hot button social issues, does have some women in his corner. The anti-abortion women’s activist group Susan B. Anthony List opened a bus tour and ad campaign in Michigan encouraging people to vote for the former Pennsylvania senator on Tuesday. The ad says Santorum has “stood up time and again for the rights of women and unborn children.”

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Lott (Candidates at Arizona debate)

Campaigning in Iowa late last year, Mitt Romney said he would veto a proposal granting U.S. citizenship to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children.

While turning his back on the so-called Dream Act won him support from grassroots conservatives in the Midwest, it brought out Hispanic activists in protest against him ahead of the debate on Wednesday.

“I just want a president who is going to be good for my community, for people who have a dream and want an education,” said Carla Uiquidi, one of a dozen or so protesters in the street opposite the Mesa Arts Center toting placards that read “Veto Romney Not the Dream Act.”

Under the Dream Act, which was brought up in the Senate in May, young undocumented immigrants who have lived most of their lives in the United States and graduate from U.S. high schools would be eligible for a conditional six-year “path to citizenship” if they earn a college degree or serve two years in the military.

Romney told caucus voters in Lemars, Iowa, in late December that he would secure the U.S.-Mexico border with a fence and enough Border Patrol agents to guard it.

His remarks there drew vigorous applause there and at a later appearance in Sioux City. Romney said he would eliminate the “magnet” that draws illegal immigrants by cracking down on employers who hire them. They didn’t impress Uiquidi on Wednesday.

“Mitt Romney is the one who has been the most outspoken about not passing the Dream Act or even looking at it … I don’t think he should be president,” she said. “I believe everybody should have an equal chance and opportunity to get an education … and be able to dream. Nobody should take that away from them.”

Photo credit: Tim Gaynor

But perhaps more importantly, Obama neutralized corporate taxes as an election year issue by aligning himself with Republican positions.

Sure, there may be differences in the tax rates each candidate backs – Obama at 28 percent, Romney 25 percent, Santorum 17.5 percent and Gingrich 12.5 percent.

But the message is the same: cut taxes on our corporations and especially domestic manufacturers to make the United States more competitive. That’s all voters are likely to hear.

The president also showed Corporate America – not his biggest fan – that he’s willing to talk with them, at least on the tax issue. Cutting the corporate tax rate has been a top goal of big businesses for many years.

Not that it will add up to much more than political messaging, at least this year, with elections coming in November. The odds of meaningful tax legislation in 2012 are slim to none.

But come 2013, tax reform could be the big show and Obama’s plan puts him at center stage.

Here are our top stories from Washington…

Obama urges US corporate tax cut, closing loopholes

President Obama made an opening offer in what could be a long negotiation with corporate America, putting forward his first clear plan to cut the corporate tax rate. Though it has little chance of becoming law in an election year with Congress deeply divided on fiscal issues, Obama’s plan aligns him roughly with the Republican presidential challengers and could minimize the corporate tax rate as a political issue.

For more of this story by Kim Dixon, read here.

For a factbox on winners and losers under the Obama plan, click here.

Romney proposes 28 pct top U.S. income tax rate

Republican Mitt Romney, looking for a boost in his presidential campaign, proposed an overhaul of the tax system that he said would cut Americans’ tax rates by 20 percent and limit deductions for the wealthy. Romney unveiled his proposals just hours after President Obama offered his plan.

For more of this story by Steve Holland, read here.

For a factbox on the Romney plan, click here.

At Arizona debate, Santorum to get his turn in spotlight

After months on the sidelines, Rick Santorum finally gets his chance at center stage in a debate of Republican presidential candidates, as well as the increased scrutiny that comes with it. Santorum, surging in opinion polls, is likely to face tough questions over his strong conservative views on social issues when he and rivals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul gather for the 8 p.m. EST debate sponsored by CNN.

For more of this story by Steve Holland, read here.

Santorum, Romney close but neither tops Obama-polls

Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are running neck-and-neck but neither would beat incumbent President Obama, according to several polls. Polls by the Associated Press/GfK and NBC News/Marist show Santorum has gained enough to close in on Romney, who had been seen as the most likely nominee in a Republican field that still has four candidates vying for the party’s nomination.

For more of this story by Susan Heavey, read here.

Listen up voters, Congress is messaging you

When is legislation put up for a vote but never expected to become law?

Answer: When it’s in Congress, where an increasing number of purely symbolic votes are expected this election year as a divided Congress tries to make points with voters.

For more of this story by Thomas Ferraro and Donna Smith, read here

Lawmakers to Obama: tamp down fuel prices with oil stocks

Three Democratic lawmakers urged the White House to signal it is ready to tap the nation’s oil stockpiles to combat surging fuel prices, arguing an “aggressive” strategy could tamp down speculation. Oil prices hit their highest level in nine months on Tuesday as tensions with Iran continue to rattle crude markets. The skyrocketing oil costs have turned U.S. gasoline prices into a key issue for the 2012 presidential election season.

For more of this story by Ayesha Rascoe, read here.

FDA panel gives nod to Vivus obesity drug

An experimental obesity drug won a panel’s support, raising hopes regulators would approve a weight-loss pill for the first time in 13 years. A panel of outside experts to the FDA voted to recommend approval of Qnexa, meant to treat obesity and its accompanying health problems.

For more of this story by Anna Yukhananov, read here.

From elsewhere…

Judge to rule if pharmacies must sell “Plan B” pills

A federal judge was expected to rule on whether Washington state can compel pharmacy owners to carry and sell the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B despite their personal religious objections to the drug. The case stems from a lawsuit brought by a family-owned pharmacy and two licensed druggists claiming their constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion is violated by a state rule requiring pharmacies to stock and dispense all medications for which there is a demonstrated community need.

For more of this story, read here.

For more stories from our Washington correspondents visit www.reuters.com and stay informed.

Photo Credits: REUTERS/Jason Reed (Obama with Vice President Biden following remarks on extension of payroll tax cut, Feb. 21); REUTERS/Joshua Lott (Santorum in Phoenix): REUTERS/Joshua Lott (Los Angeles gas station)

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.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Chris Kleponis (Obama speaks at the “In Performance at the White House” event in Washington)

Santorum explained his comments during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, saying he was questioning the president’s world view — not his faith.

“I accept the fact that the president’s Christian,” Santorum said. “I just said that when you have a world view that elevates the earth above man says that, you know, we can’t take those resources because we’re going to harm the earth by things that are frankly just not scientifically proven.”

A devout Roman Catholic and social conservative, Santorum brought up the theology issue a day earlier in Columbus, Ohio, as he addressed supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement. (Here’s the story from Reuters’ Sam Jacobs)

On ABC’s “This Week,” Robert Gibbs, a senior advisor to Obama’s re-election campaign said Santorum’s “phony theology” comment crosses a line and was dragging the presidential campaign down.

“I can’t help but think that those remarks are well over the line,” Gibbs said. “It’s wrong. It’s destructive. It makes it virtually impossible to solve the problems that we all face together as Americans.”

Here’s Santorum on “Face the Nation”

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Matt Sullivan (Santorum speaks during a Tea Party Rally in Columbus)

“And every penny of that minimum tax should go towards lowering taxes for companies like Boeing that choose to stay and hire here in the United States of America," he said.

Ironic, since most business groups are privately groaning about the idea of a basic minimum tax on foreign profits earned in low tax countries like the Cayman Islands.

Meanwhile, a left-leaning tax policy group cried foul about Obama's choice of venue. By their calculation Boeing has paid no net taxes over the past decade, using legal means that the group says are undermining the integrity of the U.S. tax code.

Citizens for Tax Justice, which is funded in part by labor unions, estimates that Boeing got money back from the U.S. government over the past decade – paying a negative 6.5 percent tax rate, even though it was profitable every year from 2002 through 2011. “Every time (Obama) sees a company that pays no taxes, he wants to be its best friend,” said Bob McIntyre, a veteran Washington D.C. tax activit who helped push changes that led to a 1986 overhaul of the tax code, which raised taxes on corporate America.

McIntyre may have been referring to General Electric, which McIntyre's group says also has paid no taxes in recent years, and whose Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt heads Obama’s advisory “Jobs Council.”

Boeing, for its part, says its effective tax rate over the past several years has been in the high 20-percent to low 30 percent range. One of the biggest tax breaks Boeing takes advantage of is the research and development tax credit, which is widely praised by lawmakers of both parties.

But the company's estimated tax rate includes taxes it has not paid yet on income still sitting offshore. Companies can defer taxes on profits earned abroad, take deductions for interest but wait to pay taxes until the cash is brought back as a dividend for investors, for example.

A company spokesman said including deferred taxes accounts for Boeing's large airplane inventory and pension contributions.

"We will pay more cash taxes in the years ahead as we begin delivering our new airplane programs in large numbers and emerge from this period of investment," the spokesman said.

Whatever it was, Santorum — a staunch social conservative – said he’s not going to be responsible for what his supporters say.

“I’m not going to play that game,” the former Pennsylvania senator told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Thursday night when asked about what Foster Friess said earlier in the day.

Friess, the chief donor to the pro-Santorum SuperPAC, was asked whether he had any concerns about the candidate’s views on social issues. Part of his response raised eyebrows.

“Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly,” he told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

Here’s video from the MSNBC interview:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

At one point in her interview with Santorum, Van Susteren referred to Friess as his “creepy supporter.” She asked whether Santorum would “at least correct” Friess because “most women don’t think it was the funniest comment.”

Santorum did not “correct” his friend nor did he apologize for the comment.

“Foster is known in political circles for telling a lot of jokes and that some of them were are particularly funny, which this one was not,” Santorum said.

“He’s not creepy. He’s a good man. He’s a great philanthropist. He’s a very successful businessman,” Santorum added, in his donor’s defense.

“He told a bad, off-color joke and he should not have done it. That’s his business,” Sanotum said.  “It certainly doesn’t, in my opinion, reflect on the campaign or me because he wasn’t doing it as part of our campaign.”

Van Susteren took back her “creepy” description. “I shouldn’t have said he’s creepy… what he said was creepy.”

In the end they both agreed that it was “a stupid joke.”

At about the same time, Friess was back on MSNBC, making light of his earlier comments — and clarifying that he wasn’t actually giving medical advice.

“I don’t have a license,” he said laughing. “You can not believe some of the people didn’t get the joke.”

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Nathan Armes (Santorum at campaign rally in Loveland, Colorado)

As Reuters Washington correspondent Missy Ryan explains, President Obama’s peace gambit has the potential to be a significant development for U.S. foreign policy. But it turns out it is a policy borne out of necessity: two years ago, the Pentagon thought the Taliban could be defeated militarily, and today, it’s all too clear they aren’t going away.

There are many hurdles and not insignificant push back here at home to overcome. And Obama may want to don a helmet for the incoming fire… from Capitol Hill. As soon as he notifies Congress of plans to move Taliban detainees from Guantanamo to get the ball rolling, he is sure to face a torrent of attacks.

If the idea of talking with a fundamentalist group known for its brutality and repression is just too hard to conceive, consider this: it could have well happened a decade ago and possibly ended the war in Afghanistan.

As a former U.N. official and advocate of peace talks told Ryan: “When people start to add up cost of war in Afghanistan over the last decade, they will ask how on earth the new Afghan leadership and U.S. officials failed to take advantage of these early overtures by the Taliban.”

Here are our top stories from Washington…

Afghan peace push brings rare chance, risks, for U.S.

If all goes as hoped, U.S. and Qatari negotiators will meet soon to nail down final details for transferring Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo prison – a momentous step for President Obama, the Afghan war and perhaps U.S. foreign policy as well. On the way to the first-ever peace negotiations to end the long and bloody Afghan war, much could go wrong – indeed much already has.

For more of this story by Missy Ryan, read here.

U.S.-China discord remains after Xi’s mood music

China’s leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping won the kind of reception in the United States that suggests Washington sees his rise as a chance to narrow economic and political rifts. Converting the warm mood music brought by Xi into substantively improved Sino-U.S. ties, however, will demand concessions that both sides are likely to resist.

For more of this analysis by Chris Buckley, read here.

Romney, Obama campaign spar over US-China policy

Mitt Romney lashed out at Beijing and President Obama’s China policy, criticizing the president for going in “precisely the wrong direction” and calling meetings this week with visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping “empty pomp.” In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, the Republican presidential candidate chided Obama for demurring to the Asian powerhouse and said he would change course if elected by preserving a military presence in the region and confronting human rights issues in China more forcefully.

For more of this story by Susan Heavey and Jeff Mason, read here.

In Michigan, Santorum fights back against Romney

Republican White House hopeful Rick Santorum defended himself against attacks from wounded front-runner Mitt Romney as Santorum’s hopes rose of dealing a heavy blow in Michigan to his main rival. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator who has emerged as a major threat to Romney in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, used a speech in Detroit to push a blue-collar theme in the state where the struggling auto industry has help push up unemployment.

For more of this story by Samuel P. Jacobs, read here.

U.S. jobs, factory data strengthen growth outlook

The number of Americans filing for new unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a near four-year low last week, suggesting the labor market recovery was quickening. Other data showing solid expansion in factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic area this month and builders breaking more ground on new residential projects in January offered more evidence of a sustained momentum in the economy.

For more of this story by Lucia Mutikani, read here.

Congress leaders rally support for tax deal

Democratic and Republican leaders rallied support in a divided Congress for a bipartisan deal to renew a payroll tax cut for 160 million U.S. workers through the November elections. The agreement represents a victory for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress, and allows Republicans to put behind them a battle over taxes that threatened to hurt them in the November elections.

For more of this story by Donna Smith and Thomas Ferraro, read here.

CFPB targets debt collectors and credit bureaus

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a proposal to regulate about 200 debt collectors and companies that produce credit reports as part of an effort to extend its oversight beyond the banking industry. The agency is charged by Dodd-Frank with overseeing consumer financial products, such as credit cards and mortgages offered by banks, as well as some products offered outside the industry, including residential mortgages and student loans.

For more of this story by Dave Clarke, read here.

From elsewhere…

China’s Xi, US officials talk food trade in Iowa

China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, gathered with agricultural officials in America’s grainbelt and stressed their shared interests in fostering increased trade in farm goods. Extending his visit to the top U.S. soybean- and corn-growing state of Iowa, Xi and Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Des Moines to kick off what was billed as the first-ever U.S.-China Agricultural Symposium.

For more of this story, read here.

For more stories from our Washington correspondents visit www.reuters.com and stay informed.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Ahmad Nadeem (A U.S. soldier keeps watch near the site of a car bomb blast in the city of Kandahar ); REUTERS/Rebecca Cook  (Santorum addresses the Detroit Economic Club); REUTERS/Charlie Neibergall/Pool (Rick Kimberley presents a model tractor to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping  at Kimberley’s family farm, in Maxwell, Iowa)

That might well be the upshot of Romney’s op-ed in the Detroit News this week deriding the 2009 automotive bailout as “crony capitalism” and calling it a sop to the United Auto Workers union for supporting President Barack Obama’s campaign. Romney wins points here for courage and consistency (he has taken this position before), but not for political smarts or judgment.

Romney has found himself in the shaky position of defending Romneycare, the government-financed healthcare plan in Massachusetts, while criticizing the government-financed rescue of GM and Chrysler. It’s hard to see a consistent political philosophy in this, which is why conservatives don’t trust Romney. It’s also hard to understand why, on the eve of Michigan’s critical primary, Romney is criticizing the only Obama domestic-policy initiative that actually has worked.

Not surprisingly, the $81 billion bailout was, and remains, wildly popular in Michigan. But on a more fundamental level, the government bailout was the only way to save General Motors and Chrysler, and thus was a critical element in preventing the Great Recession from morphing into Great Depression II.

Recall that in November 2008, the month Obama was elected, the U.S. economy shed 533,000 jobs, the biggest monthly job loss in more than 30 years. That jolted George W. Bush, a Republican, into action. The first $25 billion in government bailout money was approved by the Bush administration before Obama took office.

While Romney asserts that a “managed bankruptcy” funded by private investors could have rescued General Motors, absolutely no private money was on the horizon in 2009 for either GM or Chrysler. Nobody was raising their hand to buy a used car company, and the frightened banks wouldn’t have financed it anyway. The only alternative to a government bailout was the outright liquidation of both companies. Maybe the U.S. economy could have survived that blow, but maybe not. What’s clear is that it would have been foolhardy to find out.

For both political and philosophical reasons, the Obama administration really didn’t want to bail out Detroit. The potential for accusing the administration of paying off the UAW, as Romney has done, was all too obvious. To the president and his aides, the bailout was sort of like changing a diaper — disgusting but necessary.

Moreover, the UAW had to swallow bitter concessions, and almost balked at the deal. Obama’s automotive task force insisted on abolishing restrictive work rules and the infamous Jobs Bank that paid laid-off workers 95 percent of their wages indefinitely for not working. The union also was forced to take shares in Chrysler (in fact, a controlling stake) to finance its retiree healthcare fund. What the UAW really wanted was cash, not stock. The union wasn’t stupid; it wanted to milk Chrysler, not own it.

In fact, what made the automotive bailout work, despite its widespread and understandable unpopularity, was that the pain was spread widely. Factories got closed, brands (Pontiac, Saturn, etc.) got killed, workers lost their jobs, executives got fired, bondholders took haircuts, stockholders got wiped out and dealers lost franchises.

It was messy. It was painful. And it was ugly.

The only thing worse would have been outright liquidation. That might have been catastrophic.

PHOTO: United Auto Workers and other activists protest outside a Coney Island restaurant where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a stop in Livonia, Michigan June 9, 2011. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

President Barack Obama is well-known to be a huge basketball fan, and he hasn’t missed the biggest story in the NBA — the rise of Jeremy Lin, the Harvard-educated, Taiwanese American guard whose record-setting scoring run has led the New York Knicks to six straight victories.

Lin added to his legend on Monday night by making a three-point shot as time expired that gave the Knicks a 90-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said he and Obama had talked about Lin on Tuesday on the helicopter ride from the White House to catch an Air Force One flight to Milwaukee.

“The president is an avid sports fan and particularly avid basketball fan and we were speaking about Jeremy Lin on Marine One as we flew here to Andrews Air Force Base this morning,” Carney told reporters as they flew to Wisconsin.

“It’s just a great story and the president was saying as much this morning. Obviously terrific for the New York Knicks but it’s the kind of sports story that transcends the sport itself,” he said

“It’s a great story and yes, he’s very impressed and fully up to speed. I know he’s watched Lin play already and he’s seen the highlights from last night’s game,” Carney said.

Picture credit: REUTERS/Mike Cassesse