user: Article:

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) acknowledged on Sunday that his lack of awareness about controversial newsletters published under his name could call his management style into question. 
  
 “Well, yeah, I think so,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But I don’t think anybody in the world has been perfect on management. … So yes, it is a flaw but I think it is a human flaw and it is probably shared by a lot more people than myself.” 
  
 The Republican presidential contender said hundreds of people have worked for him, and that he can’t keep track of everything they do. 
  
 “So, no, you can't monitor every single thing, but it is a flaw,” Paul said. “And, of course, I admit that I'm an imperfect person and didn't monitor that as well. But to paint my whole life on that is a gross distortion, because we have to remember, I didn't write them, I didn't see them before that, and I have disavowed them. That to me is the most important thing.” 
  
 Paul has been forced to defend and explain racially charged statements published in newsletters under his name in the 1980s and 1990s. He has condemned the comments and said that he did not write them. 
  
 Read more about: Sunday Shows, Ron Paul ||||| Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul took heat on "Fox News Sunday" for claims made in his 1987 book “Freedom Under Siege” that AIDS patients victimize society and the sexually harassed share in some of the blame for their predicament. 
  
 Host Chris Wallace challenged the Texas congressman’s libertarian philosophy by asking about a passage in the book that says an individual suffering from AIDS “victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care.” 
  
 “I don't know how you can change science,” Paul answered. “Sexually transmitted diseases are caused by sexual activity. That’s been known for some 400 or 500 years, how these diseases are spread. If a fault comes with people because of their personal behavior, and in a free society, people do dumb things, but it isn’t to be placed as a burden on other people, innocent people. Why should they have to pay for the consequences? That’s a sort of a nationalistic or socialistic attitude.” 
  
 Paul later clarified that AIDS patients should rely on the free market and private insurance to pay for their medical care rather than on the government. 
  
 With the Iowa caucuses looming on Tuesday, the Texas congressman’s top-tier status has led to attacks on his anti-war stances and writings associated with him. 
  
 The most recent Des Moines Register poll puts him second in the GOP field with 22 percent. Paul is just behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who received 24 percent. 
  
 Toward the end of December, Paul was distancing himself from a newsletter he published in the 1980s and 1990s that contained racially disturbing statements. 
  
 His 1987 book also suggested that the sexually harassed should quit their jobs, saying they shouldn’t escape some of the responsibility for the problem. 
  
 Paul said there shouldn’t be federal laws against the kinds of rude behavior often connected with sexual harassment. 
  
 “If it’s just because somebody told a joke and somebody got offended,” Paul said, “they don't have a right to go to the federal government and have a policeman come in.” 
  
 Read more about: Ron Paul ||||| Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday took a shot at former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum as a “fair weather conservative.” 
  
 Paul, the son of presidential candidate Ron Paul, said Santorum, who has been surging in the Iowa polls, “has a lot of things to overcome.” 
  
 Santorum lost his 2006 reelection campaign by “over 20 points,” Paul said, overstating the margin, which was 18 points. “He was a big supporter of Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey (in the 2004 Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary). He has really been a big government moderate. And a lot of people don’t know that because he hasn’t surged to the top yet so he hasn’t had much scrutiny. 
  
 “When he has the scrutiny, he is going to have some of the same problems that some of the other fair weather conservatives have had,” Paul said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” 
  
 Read more about: Rand Paul ||||| Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who sunk to last place in the most recent Iowa presidential polls, said on Sunday that a “miracle” might take place in the caucuses Tuesday. 
  
 “Polls … sometimes belie the truth on the ground, and that's what we see,” Bachmann said on ABC’s “This Week” “This isn't just about polling. This is about what we're seeing in reality, and I think Tuesday night people are going to see a miracle." 
  
 She said she has come from behind before and that she was prepared to do the same in this race for the Republican presidential nomination. 
  
 Bachmann dismissed suggestions that a poor showing in Iowa could signal the end of her campaign. 
  
 “We've bought tickets to head off to South Carolina,” she said. “And we are looking forward to the debates. January is a very full month. We're here for the -- for the long -- for the long race. This is a 50-state race. And we intend to participate not only in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, but to go all the way, because I intend to be the Republican nominee and defeat Barack Obama in 2012.” 
  
 Read more about: Michele Bachmann ||||| Texas Gov. Rick Perry pushed back Sunday against a POLITICO story about dysfunction and infighting within his presidential campaign. 
  
 The Republican presidential candidate dismissed a statement in the Saturday article by an unnamed senior adviser that “there has never been a more ineptly orchestrated, just unbelievably subpar campaign for president of the United States than this one.” 
  
 “I haven’t read it,” Perry said on "Fox News Sunday." “That’s inside-the-Beltway chatter that happens on a fairly regular basis. I’m focused on campaigning in Iowa.” 
  
 Despite outspending rivals on television ads before the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, Perry has failed to emerge as a top candidate and came in fifth in the Des Moines Register poll released Saturday. 
  
 “We got in the race late, obviously, in August and some of these folks have been running for years,” he explained, adding that “nobody has got a better ground game.” 
  
 Read more about: Iowa, Rick Perry, 2012 |||||
What is a summary?


assistant: – Michele Bachmann, lately languishing in last place in Iowa polling, is waiting on a "miracle" in Tuesday's caucuses, reports Politico. Appearing on This Week today, the Minnesota rep said "polls sometimes belie the truth on the ground. This is about what we're seeing in reality, and I think Tuesday night people are going to see a miracle." With only two days to go, the candidates were spending their New Year's Day making their pitches on the talk show circuit. Elsewhere on your Sunday dial, as per Politico: Ron Paul on his management flaw on the newsletters: “I don’t think anybody in the world has been perfect on management. … So yes, it is a flaw but I think it is a human flaw and it is probably shared by a lot more people than myself.” Rick Perry on how his campaign is not imploding: “That’s inside the beltway chatter. I’m focused on campaigning in Iowa. We got in the race late, obviously, and some of these folks have been running for years. Nobody has got a better ground game.” Paul on AIDS patients 'victimizing' society: “I don't know how you can change science. Sexually transmitted diseases are caused by sexual activity. If a fault comes with people because of their personal behavior, and in a free society people do dumb things, but it isn’t to be placed as a burden on other people, innocent people. Why should they have to pay for the consequences? That’s a nationalistic or socialistic attitude.” Rand Paul on Rick Santorum: "He has really been a big government moderate. And a lot of people don’t know that because he hasn’t surged to the top yet so he hasn’t had much scrutiny. When he has the scrutiny, he is going to have some of the same problems that some of the other fair weather conservatives have had."