Friday, October 7, 2011

Rick Santorum: Imagine this family in the White House

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 10/7/11 12:18 PM EDT


(Politico) Rick Santorum raised up his family as a model of Christian conservative principles at the Values Voter Summit, vowing to lead by example on cultural issues as president and recounting in emotional detail the death of one of his children.

Santorum recalled an episode in the 1990s in which he and his wife, Karen, were told by a doctor that their unborn son had “a fatal defect and is going to die.”

“We were stunned. We were angry. But mostly we just cried,” Santorum said. “We didn’t end his life. We gave him a name that day."

Santorum said that when the baby was born, “He lived for two hours in our arms … He had a life that knew only love.”

The former Pennsylvania senator and longtime anti-abortion crusader also told the audience that he has a daughter with serious medical problems, calling her “a little girl who shouldn’t be here. All the textbooks say she should have been gone from us years ago.”

“She is, in fact, the joy of our lives,” Santorum said, asking attendees to envision his family in the White House. “Imagine the example of this, quote, disabled child, being that light, to be able to see the value of every child of God in our world. It’s by example that you lead.”

Santorum’s intensely personal speech had a clear political aim: To persuade attendees here that he is the most authentic, most uncompromising social conservative in the 2012 race.

“We are committed to the cause of life and family and American exceptionalism,” Santorum closed his remarks. “Please join me in that fight.”

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