Character

Rick Santorum: From the book 10 Characters with Character: Politics with Principle


“Go back to partial-birth abortion. We put that bill forward in 1995, ’96, we lost. I looked at how we entered that debate and engaged in it. We did all the right things, but the other side lied. The other side deceived. It was just lies and deception, yet through those lies and deception they were able to convince enough people who weren’t paying attention to vote with them, including the president of the United States. And we lost. Then we came back two years later and went through the same thing. Even though more things came out about how they had lied, how they had deceived, they still won. Then we came back two years later, and we were going to do the same thing, and the Supreme Court knocked us down. Then we came back three years later, and we were able to be successful.


“Now I would make the argument that all of those failures were in fact vital for a larger success—that had we not lost in ’96, ’98, and 2000, particularly in ’96 and ’98, the issue of partial-birth abortion would have been unknown to the American public. Had Bill Clinton just signed this bill on this strange and rare procedure, this would have never been an issue; no one would have known about it, and the public’s perception of abortion would not have changed as it did over those years. We made more progress on the issue of abortion, particularly among young people, than anything else since 1972. So we had, on the face of it to the world, a humiliating defeat that actually was a huge success.


“Look at things from the eyes of God not from the eyes of man. I lost my last election. I’ll never forget. I told my wife; she was stunned. It was 8:30 PM, a half-hour after polls had closed, and they called my race. I had a smile on my face. ‘You’re kidding,’ she said. ‘No. I lost. They just called it. I feel great. God’s got something else planned for me.’ I went around and talked to my staff; I had a smile on my face. I went up, gave my concession speech. I felt nothing but gratitude for the people of Pennsylvania, even though I had gotten beaten worse than any incumbent senator in thirty years. I felt nothing but gratitude, and even to this day, I feel nothing but gratitude. This state had given a kid whose dad was a first-generation American with nothing the opportunity to change my world and to change this world a little bit. I just thank you, thank you. On top of that, you’ve given me a platform where I can do things, and I can continue to do well. Why should I feel bad about this?”


From the book 10 Characters with Character: Politics with Principle, by Michael J. Kerrigan, pp. 192-193