Rick Santorum on Tuesday released a new
ad that describes Mitt Romney as “just like” President Barack
Obama on gay rights.
In the 30-second ad titled Easy
Answer, a male announcer says: “Obama is a liberal on social
issues. Romney once bragged that he's even more liberal than
[Senator] Ted Kennedy on social issues.”
“Why would we ever vote for someone
who is just like Obama?” the announcer rhetorically asks. “When
we can unite around Rick Santorum and beat Obama.” (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
The ad's reference to the late Kennedy
is valid. During his 1994 campaign to unseat Democrat Kennedy,
Romney promised gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans that if elected
he would do more for “full equality” for gay men and lesbians
than his opponent.
Romney has defended himself by saying
that he was not endorsing gay marriage.
“What happened was that the gay
community changed their perspective as to what they wanted,” Romney
told Piers Morgan on his CNN talk show Piers Morgan Tonight.
“I oppose same-sex marriage,” he
said. “At the same time, I would advance the efforts not to
discriminate against people who are gay.”