DES MOINES ? After months of the economy dominating the primary campaign, social issues finally took center stage Saturday in Iowa.
So did the candidates? personal journeys.
Continue ReadingNewt Gingrich, who has been preemptively addressing his complicated personal life as he?s shot up in the polls, acknowledged to the crowd of 3,000 gathered at the forum for Iowa social conservatives that there was ?a great deal of pain that I had caused others,? and said he was ?collapsing? in the 1990s emotionally.
Herman Cain spoke about his wife supporting him through cancer and his regret over not spending enough time with his children. He welled up twice, comforted by Rick Perry, sitting next to him at the table on a church stage set with Thanksgiving adornments for a discussion focused on faith, and in which opposition to abortion and gay marriage were discussed as critical issues.
The event, sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Leader ? a group led by a longtime activist who played a key role in organizing for caucuses winner Mike Huckabee four years ago ? marked an accelerated pitch to a pivotal caucus voting bloc. In addition to Gingrich, Cain and Perry, the table included Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.
But missing was Mitt Romney, the perceived Republican presidential frontrunner, who has never been the preferred favorite of social conservatives, and who opted to be in New Hampshire for the weekend ? a fact that several voters said they felt was a mistake.
Family Leader head Bob Vander Plaats, who last week said Romney was ?dissing? the conservative base and predicted it could cost him the nomination, immediately set the tone on stage.
?The next president of the United States will present to you tonight,? Vander Plaats said ? a clear reference to the absent Romney, who last week opened his first campaign headquarters in Iowa and is quickly ramping up his presence here.
Moderator Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster who was clearly pleased the candidates didn?t lob shots at one another as they have in the other televised debates, said he felt ?like Dr. Phil? as he tried to draw confessions about regrets and personal failings out of the candidates at the subdued affair.
?Although I was remarkable successful in many ways,? in his days in Congress, Gingrich said, ?there was a part of me that was truly hollow.? He said he read the two main Alcoholics Anonymous books ? not because he was drinking, but because he had ?precisely the symptoms of someone who was collapsing.?
He did not mention his two divorces specifically or his extramarital affairs ? topics he tackled in a newly-launched campaign website aimed at hitting back at attacks ? but he did talk about redemption.
Describing his marriage with wife Callista as a positive, he said, ?We?re very close to our two daughters? [healing] has required a great deal of pain, some of which I have caused others, which I regret deeply.?
Another emotional moment for Cain came when he described walking out of a surgeon?s office when he?d just been diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer, and telling his wife, ?I can do this. She said, ?We.??
Santorum brought the crowd to silence when he described the birth of his disabled daughter, Bella, whom he talks about frequently ? but about whom he candidly admitted he saw as ?less of a person because of her disability? when she was born, and described his guilt over it.
?I prayed at that moment, please let her live,? he said.
Perry did not get specific about his path to faith, instead repeating a story he?s told before about feeling unhappy and like something was ?missing? when he returned from a stint with the Air Force in his 20s, saying, ?In every person?s heart and soul there is a hole that can only be filled by the Lord Jesus Christ.?
They barely disagreed, although Bachmann ? who held her fire against her rivals onstage ? sent out a campaign email as the forum wrapped up in which she slammed Gingrich as insufficiently anti-abortion.
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