Spot on Scott! The GoP with its focus on social issues, contraception, birth control, and gay marriage are effectively dooming any chances at the Oval Office in 2012. Don't be surprised if they lose the House too. Mainstream America is past the Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons stage; it's the economy stupid!

but of course according to scot and friends,barak obama who underwent NO vetting when he 1st ran for president, at least from this newspaper, is , fit to lead this great, diverse country warts and all. btw scot, assuming you have a vehicle, are you not just as delighted as i am everytime you pull up to a gas pump and realize that gas is heading straight for the FIVE DOLLAR A GALLON BENCHMARK and the great divider, incompetence and all, currently squatting in the oval office ain't saying borsht. of course nobody i know of whether at city hall, beacon hill, the halls of congress ain't saying doodly squat either. but the news ain't all bad, i did manage to purchase a JEREMY LIN T-SHIRT for my beloved 9 year old grandson at MODELLS in SAUGUS. maybe either JEREMY LIN or MITCH MODELL should consider running for the oval office. anything would be better than what we got now. ANYTHING. even SANTORUM. ma

The liberal statist has trouble with any politician who appears devout about their religious beliefs, particularly, if said beliefs inform his political and policy choices, as well. Palin, Christine O'Donnell and now Santorum are the new dangerous assailants to the body politic, as slavishly reported and exaggerated ad nauseum, by Obama's lapdog media. Of course, the same media begged off on any inspection of the Obama's cult Black supremacist Church with a pastor, who was anti semitic, leftwing and cursed his country from the pulpit on a fairly regular basis. Since he had a left wing perspective, the not-so-reverend Wright was held harmless by the compliant press but woe to those dared question a connection between the Pastor's radicalism and his parishioner (who conveniently left the pew moments before the hate mongering padre spread his nitwit gospel). "Nothing to see here", said Obama and his supplicant media amen corner. That's their story then and that's their story now. In the meantime, let's obsess on Santorum's religiosity, shall we? Ahh! That's better.

Santorum is a hypocrite - why didn't he get Ashes on Wednesday if he is religious? I noticed Colbert did and yet he doesn't preach his religion.

For someone with a "holier than thou" attitude, how does he explain his wife's living with a 60 plus year old guy while she was in her early twenties? Was she not using birth control then? Have they had a major conversion since that time? The hypocrisy is overwhelming.

This is an excellent column because Scot articulates how Santorum's unbridalized zeal conflicts with mainstream thought in 21st century America. It's fine to use religion as a personal moral compass, but when the compass predetermines each move without exception, it becomes an intractable barrier to common sense. There is a parallel here with Romney's Mormonism as well. The LDS church basically makes the same claim that to remain in good standing, you must conform to church doctrine "or else". No difference as far as I can tell.

Wow, I think you have that backwards. Seems like someone really hates Mr. Obama!

When Santorum said that he was a "team player" at the debate, he validated Romney's claim that Rick was an insider. As an aside, watching both Ron Paul & Mitt Romney go after Rick Santorum, I must admit it was the best tag team I've ever seen since the Legion Of Doom.

It is amazing to see Scot react in such knee jerk, lockstep, predictable way, that now that Santorum is the front runner, he must be an extremist. Scot's reaction is robotic. The media has been playing this car for a week now, and it is very hard to take. NEW PARAGRAPH: The hypocrisy is stunning. Scot, and his pals in the media said nothing when it became clear that Barack Obama's spiritual mentor was a racist preacher who despises America. Scot, and everyone else ignored it. For them, allegiance to liberalism is all that matters. When his political roots were linked to radical left wing terrorist William Ayers, Scot and all his pals in the MSM ignored it. NEW PARAGRAPH: It is fine to disagree with a politician's beliefs. But it is bigotry to declare that his beliefs make him unqualified to be president. Rick Santorum is a very smart man, and would never force his religion on his constituents. But he is a consistent, committed Catholic, who lives the life his church instructs. That kind of seriousness should be something that we all want to see in our president.

Thanks Scott. Finally someone is willing to say it. People who are led around by the nose by their religion should not be in a position of authority. Keep it to yourselves and don't try to impose it on others - especially the wackos in the bible belt.

Richmond, your act is old. Typical of the right wing, the same tired arguments, with the same tired cliches are spewed forth with every criticism directed at Republican politicians. Extremism in religion is dangerous whatever the religion is, whoever the proponent is. For the record, the minister at Obama's former church was roundly denounced by all sides. Santorum is a fanatic, plain and simple.

this guy's snorting the kool aid.

Abortions have been around forever and people are now too old and or jaded to understand that. Abortions were fine when they were illegal, hidden, and the women had a great chance of dying. Conservatives liked it back then - Pre Roe vs Wade - because those women seeking abortions were immoral and sort-of deserved to die. It also harkens back to those times when blacks knew their place and poor people would shut up and die when they were sick. Conservatives don't like change. Just look at all the ways they are currently trying to block poor people and minorities from voting today! And they'll pretend to dislike illegal abortions when they make abortion illegal but they won't care any more than they care about babies carried to term today to poor families.

This is a wonderful example of the blinders that many on the right maintain. Those of us in the real world remember that what really happened was that the rightwing noise machine pushed the story at first, and the compliant national news media picked it up eagerly. For weeks, they spoke of little else. But it turned out that the only people who really cared were never going to vote for black Democrat with a funny name anyway. If conservatives don't take the blinders off, Santorum could well get the nomination. As much as you guys hate Obama, that's pretty much what the 80% of the country to your left is going to feel about Santorum.

Sorry Richmond12, but Scott is right. Rick Santorum is just way too religious. How many people do you know who don't think basic contraception is a good idea? If you're so conservative, are you going to take care of all the babies born to people who didn't use contraception? Who will pay for all these babies? And how will families cope, when on top of it all, the government cuts medicaid and other family benefits? As usual, Republican want no abortion and now, no contraceptives, but then don't want to offer any handouts to the families who have to raise the children. Unbelievable!

I often disagree with you, Scott, but agree with you on this one. I support Mitt Romney because he can win over moderates in the November election whereas Santorum can't. Mitt's tax plan announced a few days ago lays some of the groundwork needed to turn Barack Obama into a one-term president.

Actually, Santorum's failure to accept the theory evolution and other scientific facts, and his support for the death penalty and war puts him at odds with Roman Catholic teachings. It seems, however, that as long as you agree with the Church about anything to do with sexual activity, the bishops don't speak.

I know a lot of Catholics that think Rick Santorum is a plain nut. His type of rhetoric borders on hatred...hatred of those that don't believe as he does. I call that kind of faith anti-american. Render unto ceasar what is ceasars, and unto God what is Gods...in other words, we live in a diverse world, and we can't expect our government to run and think like our own households or believe in a higher power like we do. I look forward to the debates with the President.

Funny, do not remember you "wrighting" up Obama's religious extremism. http://news.investors.com/article/602067/201202231805/rick-santorum-questions-religion-of-president-obama.htm

My grandmother was as devout a Roman Catholic as you could ever meet. She loved her God and she loved her church and they were at the core of who she was. And yet she never felt compelled to constantly announce her religion or impose it on others. She didn't have to preface every statement with "I'm a Christian" because it wasn't necessary. She lived her beliefs and no one who knew her could ever be in doubt of who she was and what she believed. When I see someone like Santorum who has this need to constantly harp on his beliefs and impose them on others the message I get is that they are extremely insecure in their faith. That's why they can't shut-up about it. That's why they need constant validation of it by everyone else. True faith requires neither an audience or a crowd. Santorum has to impose his faith on the world because it's not strong enough to survive on it's own. He is a sad and frightened little man. If he wasn't so dangerous I might actually feel sorry for him.

As a conservative independent I agree with Scot completely. I also find it difficult to understand how any intelligent person could seriously embrace the Catholic church, but as an agnostic, what do I know?

Hey, everybody, thanks for your comments. Interesting discussion today. Scot