On the Trail: Feb. 14

Romney and Santorum battle for the conservative mantle.

On the Trail - Rick Santorum, the GOP’s latest not-Mitt Romney, is on the rise and giving Mitt Romney a run for his money, while Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul work to stay relevant in the race and President Obama courts his base.—Joyce Jones

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On the Trail - Rick Santorum, the GOP’s latest not-Mitt Romney, is on the rise and giving Mitt Romney a run for his money, while Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul work to stay relevant in the race and President Obama courts his base.—Joyce Jones

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Barack Obama - President Obama at a Feb. 9 campaign fundraiser hailed his administration’s track record on gay, lesbian and transgender issues. He also hailed the ending of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and said it’s an example of how attitudes have grown more tolerant. This week the president heads west for campaign events in Corona del Mar and San Francisco.(Photo: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney - Mitt Romney, who at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference added the curious phrase “severely conservative” to the political lexicon, won the event’s weekend straw poll with 38 percent and the Maine caucuses with 39 percent of support, both by slim margins. But he trails rival Rick Santorum in Michigan, the state where Romney grew up, which will hold its primary on Feb. 28.(Photo: REUTERS/Jim Bourg)

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Mitt Romney - Mitt Romney, who at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference added the curious phrase “severely conservative” to the political lexicon, won the event’s weekend straw poll with 38 percent and the Maine caucuses with 39 percent of support, both by slim margins. But he trails rival Rick Santorum in Michigan, the state where Romney grew up, which will hold its primary on Feb. 28.(Photo: REUTERS/Jim Bourg)

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Newt Gingrich - February has been a cruel month for Newt Gingrich, who hasn’t won a primary since his Jan. 21 South Carolina victory. Now the editors of the conservative National Review are for the second time calling on him to exit the race and throw his support behind Rick Santorum because it would be a mistake for Republican voters to nominate someone with “such poor judgment and persistent unpopularity.”(Photo: David Becker/Getty Images)

Rick Santorum - Rick Santorum, who has been on a high, is the GOP’s latest anti-Romney and leads the former governor in Michigan. But Santorum, who’s the true “severe conservative” in the race, is facing criticism for saying that putting women in combat could be “compromising” because of their emotions. And on ABC News’s This Week, he had to defend a comment in his book It Takes a Family, in which he blamed “radical feminists” for undermining families.(Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

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Rick Santorum - Rick Santorum, who has been on a high, is the GOP’s latest anti-Romney and leads the former governor in Michigan. But Santorum, who’s the true “severe conservative” in the race, is facing criticism for saying that putting women in combat could be “compromising” because of their emotions. And on ABC News’s This Week, he had to defend a comment in his book It Takes a Family, in which he blamed “radical feminists” for undermining families.(Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Ron Paul - Rep. Ron Paul lost the Maine caucuses to Mitt Romney by 200 votes and his campaign is saying the Texas lawmaker was robbed because one county postponed its caucus due to a prediction of inclement weather that didn’t pan out. According to campaign manager John Tate, “just the votes of Washington County would have been enough to put us over the top.… The truth is, there is no length to which the GOP establishment won’t go," Slate.com reports.(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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Ron Paul - Rep. Ron Paul lost the Maine caucuses to Mitt Romney by 200 votes and his campaign is saying the Texas lawmaker was robbed because one county postponed its caucus due to a prediction of inclement weather that didn’t pan out. According to campaign manager John Tate, “just the votes of Washington County would have been enough to put us over the top.… The truth is, there is no length to which the GOP establishment won’t go," Slate.com reports.(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)