GOP presidential hopeful Santorum makes campaign stop in Mt. Pleasant

By SALLY Y. HAYES

Mt. Pleasant News

Former Pennsylvania Senator and Congressman Rick Santorum entered the room saying ?I?m running for president because I think that this is the most important election since 1860.? This was stated to a group of nearly 30 local residents at Mt. Pleasant?s Civic Center Thursday afternoon.

The visiting Republican was joined by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and the third of his seven children, Daniel, on the 13th stop of his 19-event tour.

Santorum spoke to the group about his strong family values and political stance. He believes the government currently is straying from the objectives of our founding fathers. He proclaimed, ?America was the first country in the world that believed rights went to people.? The former lawyer believes the federal government should be smaller.

In his political career, Santorum worked on welfare reform, supported Israel, sought to modernize the Pentagon and worked for a balanced budget amendment. According to Santorum?s campaign literature he is a ?strong supporter of the Tea Party Movement.?

?I was conservative when it wasn?t popular to be conservative,? despite being in a heavily blue state he was elected.

Based on his previous 16 years of elected service in Washington D.C. he thinks he has the experience to become the next president. The first four years of his political career began in 1990, at the age of 32, in the U.S. House of Representatives. His two-term stint as a U.S. Senator began in 1994. In 2006 he sought a third term as senator but lost by 18-percent of the vote to democrat, Bob Casey, Jr.

Following a 20-minute presentation of his past political work and family life, Santorum opened the floor for questions from the audience.

One member of the audience asked, ?What can you do as president to make Congress uphold the constitution??

Santorum replied, ?Those in the House are a reflection of the people they represent, they aren?t leaders. They look over the shoulders. They will do what the American public wants them to do.?

Another person asked what he would do concerning the war in Afghanistan and deploying troops to Libya. Santorum stated, ?I?d never commit to sending American military abroad unless there was a direct threat to the U.S. I believe Obama went to Libya for humanitarian crises because the U.N. told him to.

?That is not the responsibility of the U.S. military. The responsibility of the U.S. military is to protect the U.S. not for humanitarian issues worldwide.? However, on the candidate?s website it states, ?Though the war in Iraq was unpopular in 2006, Santorum refused to shy away from his belief that we need to confront our enemies.?

Santorum closed before shaking hands and taking pictures by reiterating that he has a record of winning elections against Democratic incumbents, ?You want someone out there