Santorum's rise magnifies camp's missteps

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Rick Santorum stole a key endorsement from chief rival Mitt Romney on Friday as polls suggest the former Pennsylvania senator has seized the momentum in the Republican presidential contest.

Amid the shift, however, are signs of stress within a disorganized Santorum campaign and intensifying questions about whether he can sustain a rise that has come and gone once before already. Romney's political machine -- coupled with new scrutiny -- will give Santorum little margin for error.

He was all smiles at the Ohio State House on Friday afternoon as state Attorney General Mike DeWine formally shifted his allegiance from Romney to Santorum -- just 18 days before Ohio and nine other states hold critical Super Tuesday contests.

But Santorum could not escape a campaign misstep from the day before.

Foster Friess, the main donor behind Santorum's super PAC, suggested on national television that aspirin used to be an acceptable method for contraception. "The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly," he said.

Friess apologized Friday in a blog post. But Santorum was repeatedly forced to dissociate himself from his surrogate's comments, which drew attention to his own positions on contraception and women's issues.

Santorum has said he wouldn't try to take away the birth control pill or condoms but that states should be free to ban them. He told a Christian blog that as president he would warn about "the dangers of contraception" and the permissive culture it encourages.

Speaking to reporters Friday he said he and his wife, as Catholics, don't practice birth control. "To be attacked on that, which I have been, that somehow or another that just because I personally believe this, that somehow now I'm going to be the uber-czar that's going to try to impose that on the rest of the country, it's absurd," he said.

The contraception flap, according to Republican observers, is evidence of an undisciplined campaign that is already stumbling under the weight of intensifying scrutiny. And Santorum may struggle to win over female voters in particular.