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Herman Cain, Rick Santorum Tear Up at Iowa Presidential Forum
abc news ^ | 11/20/11 | staff

Posted on 11/20/2011 7:55:48 PM PST by TexasFreeper2009

DES MOINES, Iowa — A gathering of religious conservatives in Iowa tonight turned into one of the most emotional moments of the 2012 primary season when two presidential candidates — Herman Cain and Rick Santorum — both fought back tears while telling personal stories about the most challenging moments in their lives.

Cain, whose wife, Gloria, was in the audience, spoke about being diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in 2006, stopping several times during his re-telling of the story to compose himself.

“I can do this,” Cain said he told his wife moments after getting the cancer diagnosis from his doctor. “She said — ‘we.’”

Fellow candidate Rick Perry, who was seated next to Cain at the forum, which is sponsored by the Christian conservative organization The Family Leader, reached over and touched Cain on the shoulder, consoling him.

Santorum spoke about his three-year-old daughter Bella’s diagnosis with Trisomy 18, a disorder that kills roughly 90 percent of children before or during birth. He shared his struggle dealing with the illness, acknowledging that he thought if he did not love her, it wouldn’t hurt him if she died.

Bella is still alive, but Santorum spoke of a particularly trying time when he thought he was about to lose her: “I prayed that moment, please, please let her live,” Santorum said. “I’ll do everything to commit to her and not just her, but to every child like her.”

Michele Bachmann and Perry both reached out to comfort the former Pennsylvania senator.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: cain; forum; hermancain; ia2012; iowa
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To: deks

Thanks for posting the links. I just got done watching it; it was a good “debate”. Everyone got time to say what they had to say, and it was an exchange that was focused on ideas and principles. This is how our debates should be run.


21 posted on 11/21/2011 1:04:10 AM PST by marron
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To: Lazlo in PA

I think he should appeal to socons in iowa. He is 100% pure socon. Definitely does believe that the Federal Government does know best when it comes to moral matters and does not shy away from that. Others disagree, would like the states to have a greater say in these matters.

It’s an interesting debate. He wants to push the Socon agenda, strongly, and he’s 100% right on the Socon issues. And he’s a smart guy, I’m impressed by his debating. Clear thinking. Sort of an attack dog.


22 posted on 11/21/2011 1:37:23 AM PST by truthfreedom
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To: Lazlo in PA

A long shot, but he really just needs a big chunk of votes from Socons, and the biggest hawks. He should just target Socons. There are a lot of them in Iowa. If he can reach them, he should be able to get a lot of them. 15%, taking from Perry, Cain, Bachmann and Gingrich. If there are Social Conservatives who are not “limited constitutional government” tea party, they’d really really like Santorum. The others are trying to appeal to the tea party, Santorum isn’t really. Of course, these days, all types of conservatives call themselves tea party.


23 posted on 11/21/2011 1:43:52 AM PST by truthfreedom
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To: reflecting

I thought Santorum did great in that debate. His intrade numbers are up a bit. Still very low, but up from .5 to 1, now tied with Bachmann. If Santorum finishes at 3 in Iowa, after Paul and Romney, he could be in fine shape.


24 posted on 11/21/2011 1:50:03 AM PST by truthfreedom
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To: truthfreedom

IIRC Newt pushed out a few tears also. They were just hard to see on his ashen/milk white face. Not picking on Newt, just saying I saw shiny wet marks under his right eye.


25 posted on 11/21/2011 4:06:55 AM PST by BookaT ($9.99 this week +$9.99 last 4 weeks + $50 to get going= 99.95 for my ticket on The Cain Train!)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Bunch of cry babies. You’d never see Dick Cheney blubbering like a baby.


26 posted on 11/21/2011 5:50:54 AM PST by BO Stinkss
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To: jessduntno; Iron Munro
Look at this short YouTube clip from the Forum on Saturday night and tell me that is tears gushing down. There is one tear because it was a child of a personal friend he was telling about. Santorum had a few more tears because it was his own child who finally died.

Newt Gingrich

27 posted on 11/21/2011 7:49:18 PM PST by Spunky (Sarah Palin on Polls "Poles are for Strippers and Cross Country Skiers")
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To: Spunky

“Look at this short YouTube clip.”

Saw the whole thing. I re[ect your opinion, but stand by what I said.


28 posted on 11/21/2011 9:33:46 PM PST by jessduntno ("They say the world has become too complex for simple answers... they are wrong." - RR)
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