Well, at least Santorum is consistent. He's ALWAYS been about "Faith and Family", as long as "family" is meant in the Old Testement, keep the women at home type of sense. "Freedom"? Not so much if you happen to be a female.
It’s stories like this from CNN that have me, and no doubt Obama handlers, drooling over the prospect of Rick Santorum continuing to gain momentum, and win the GOP nomination. Outside of the fact that ALL GOP candidates ripped into Obama for last week’s moves on insurance coverage for contraception, it was no surprise that Santorum joined the fray and was among the most vocal of critics. After all, Santorum has “convictions”, right? That’s what appeals to evangelical and other conservatives, is that Santorum has always supported a very conservative agenda.
Those “convictions” are winning him a lot of fans in what’s become a very radicalized Republican party. Those “convictions” have won him 4 primaries or caucuses, and have him positioned for a massive, statement-victory in Michigan in few weeks, a supposed Romney stronghold. Those “convictions” still are unlikely to win him the GOP nomination, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility anymore.
Those “convictions” would also result in a Santorum massacre in the election against Obama in the fall. Last time I checked, half of the human race are females. Yes, there are very conservative females who would support Santorum. There are very conservative females who DO share Santorum’s views on women, and their place in society. Heck, I think back to my now-departed Grandma Sohl, who insisted that the men sit and eat first at family gatherings. A wonderful woman, but with some views of the place of men and women that were about as “old school” as you can get. At least on some social issues, Santorum might get the “Grandma Sohl” vote. But does ANYONE really think Santorum would have a shot in the fall election? What percentage of women would actually vote for this dinosaur?
Some wonderful Santorum gems from over the years:
On birth control: “I don’t think it works. I think it’s harmful to women, I think it’s harmful to our society to have a society that says that sex outside of marriage is something that should be encouraged or tolerated, particularly among the young. I think it has, as we’ve seen, very harmful long-term consequences for society. So birth control to me enables that and I don’t think it’s a healthy thing for our country.”
About women’s (suppoosed lack of) potential for military combat: “I think that could be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved.”
About denying all abortion, even in the case of rape: “As horrible as the way that that son or daughter was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn’t, it will always be her child. And she will always know that.”
On equal opportunities for women in the workplace: “Radical feminists have been making the pitch that justice demands that men and women be given an equal opportunity to make it to the top in the workplace.”
On providing assistance to single mothers: “The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong.”
Santorum has benefited greatly from being the last “Someone Other Than Romney” still standing. Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann were originally the favored “someone other than Romney”…until they opened their mouths and people realized with aghast how completely inept they were. Newt Gingrich was riding high for a short time, until he opened his mouth and started talking about moon colonies as a high priority. Until the Iowa caucus, Rick Santorum was flying under the radar, and was largely unvetted like most of his opponents. That’s starting to change, as the media starts to reveal the “real” Rick Santorum.
It’s not a pretty side to the man. It’s one that makes him completely inelectable. For Obama’s sake, I also hope it’s a side that stays behind the curtain for awhile longer, until Santorum can somehow procure the GOP nomination.
I am hoping the news about Romney’s Mormons doing proxy baptisms on dead Jews and Holocaust victims, without any sort of permission–baptism on dead people, on old lists, is going to rewrite the outcome of the Republican election for a nominee. He was a Bishop in his church–this is his belief-center, his orientation, if you will. That he has never made any bones about his wealth, his disdain for creating any sort of “purple’ states, with consensus-building, compassion for the vulnerable etc in this country, his views on ramping up the military once again, etc, make him unacceptable as a president of anything. Santorum will give it the old evangelical try, as the nominee, but President Obama will be formidable and prevail. Yesterday, I found out that Boehner has bought stock in all of the Keystone XL companies. Regardless of being Canada’s conduit for pipeline mess and environmental chaos, he still wants to make sure, now that the insider-trading method of getting rich is off the table, that he still has options. To my knowledge, he hasn’t ever visited sites already in progress, consumed some of the water, breathed the air, seen how the property values have dropped for the homeowners living near the sites.