Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum -- who was already staking out some far-right ground in bids for votes among Iowa/South Carolina conservatives -- made some surprising comments about Barack Obama, race and abortion Wednesday, saying it's hypocritical for blacks "to decide who are people and who are not people."

Or as Politico puts it in their headline today, "Santorum plays race card on President Obama."

Here's their story:

In eye-brow raising comments, possible presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is questioning how President Barack Obama - as an African-American - can support abortion rights.

Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania who is seriously considering a run for his party’s 2012 presidential nomination, argued in an interview that a fetus is a person and said he considers it “almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.’”

Discussing Obama’s views on abortion during a two-hour sit-down with CNS News on Wednesday, Santorum said the president’s pro-choice position meant he was valuing some lives over others.

“The question is, and this is what Barack Obama didn’t want to answer — is that human life a person under the Constitution?” he said.

“And Barack Obama says no. Well, if that human life is not a person, then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.’”

Santorum had some aggressive comments on immigration earlier this week, telling The Hill that ""If you want to come here to work and then send your money back home, I don’t want you. If you want to come here and impose sharia law, stay home. If you want to come here to be an American, then I want you."

The full, nearly 2-hour, video from Brent Bozell's Cybercast News Service is here but the comments are helpfully clipped by the liberal People for the American Way below: