Social Security’s future insolvency problem is caused in part by abortion, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Tuesday.

The presidential aspirant and devout social conservative told a New Hampshire radio station on Tuesday that the cash shortfalls facing the 76-year-old Social Security system could be lessened if not for the country’s “abortion culture.”

    — Colby Itkowitz, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2011

Rick Santorum has a Google problem.

The former Pennsylvania Senator might be well-known on Capitol Hill, but his name more regularly produces blank stares in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, if recent polling is any guide. The likely Republican presidential candidate knows he needs to expand his name identification.

Santorum can only hope voters don’t turn to Google, the world’s most popular Internet search engine, to learn more about him.

Try it for yourself: Enter “Rick Santorum” into Google. In a fraction of a second you’ll have hundreds of thousands of results. But two of the top four cite a graphic definition for a sexual neologism. In this case, the neologism is a reference to anal sex.

This, of course, is no accident.

    — Steve Peoples, Roll Call, February 16, 2011

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is back on the pre-2012 circuit next week, making his longest campaign trip to date through early GOP primary states.

Santorum, the conservative who lost his seat in 2006 and is now mulling a White House bid, will be in Iowa on Monday and Tuesday, before trekking to South Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday. He spent three days in Iowa earlier this year, but the four-day swing through the two key states appears to be his most packed campaign trip to date.

    — Dan Hirschhorn, October 22, 2010

While Peter Jackson and Warner Bros are figuring out where they’ll shoot back-to-back installments of The Hobbit, Jackson has begun to set his cast for the ambitious projects that will begin shooting in February for release in December 2012, and 2013. As Deadline told you last week, Martin Freeman is set to play Bilbo Baggins, the adventurous Hobbit whose adventures and discovery of the One Ring leads the story up to The Lord of the Rings. Freeman has appeared in films ranging from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Hot Fuzz to Love Actually.

    — Xoanon, October 21, 2010

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum on Tuesday stoked additional speculation — while treading lightly around any confirmation — that he would seek the GOP nomination for the 2012 presidential race.

“I really didn’t start down this road with any real intention. I was open to it. … As I’ve traveled down this road, I feel like paths are opening up, doors are opening up and feel like I’m being pulled along and getting deeper and deeper involved in this process,” he told The Patriot-News.

    — Ivey DeJesus, The Patriot-News, October 19, 2010

Either Palin has no interest in running for president — ever — or she is so terrifyingly disorganized she couldn’t win in even the most friendly landscape. Okay, “couldn’t win” is too strong. But even if she can get organized, she is digging a very deep hole.

    — Jonathan Chait, The New Republic, October 21, 2010

[Santorum] said wins in 2010 will put a break on the Democrats’ agenda, but reversing the party’s legislative wins will require a Republican to win the White House in 2012.

“We’re not going to repeal much of anything,” he added. “We won’t win big policy changes as long as Barack Obama is president.”

    — Ed Tibbetts, Quad-City Times, October 14, 2010

The mainstream media and legions of political pundits are making a simple mistake. When it comes to Palin and her growing political power, the debate always seems to focus on whether she can win or not. Is she too extreme? Can she attract a broader base of support than her fanatical base? Could the rising Tea Party tide carry her to the White House?

No one is asking a more fundamental question: does she actually want to run?

    — Paul Harris, The Guardian, October 13, 2010

He’s serious, folks. Former Senator Rick Santorum is abetting speculation that he’s planning a presidential run 2012 in a serious way. Today, he’s formed a political action committee in Iowa, called the Iowa Keystone Political Action Committee, ” that will allow him to assist candidates running for office in Iowa,” a spokesperson says.

    — Mark Ambinder, The Atlantic, October 7, 2010

The problem with the Pledge [to America] is it doesn’t provide meat on the bone as to what [Republicans] want to accomplish, specifically, [and] certainly on the social issues. There wasn’t really anything that was edgy, but that was intentional. From a rhetorical view it was fine, from a substantive view it was short.

    — Rick Santorum, National Review Online, October 1, 2010