Posted on 02/25/2012 1:20:13 PM PST by WPaCon
Wish I had a nickel for every conservative who confidently predicted that the Arizona debate would, of course, feature obnoxious questions about birth control and the devil aimed at Rick Santorum. As it turned out, CNN’s John King did not ask “gotcha” questions and, for the most part, conducted a fair and informative debate.
The debate moderated by King, along with other events of the past week, has resolved a question that has been swirling since the Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota primaries: Why not Santorum?
There is much to like and admire about Rick Santorum. He did fine work enacting welfare reform in the 1990s. He was an eloquent and thoughtful advocate for the unborn. He has kept a weather eye on Iran for many years. He’s a dedicated family man. He was the first candidate to raise the issue of family structure in the context of discussions of poverty. And he had a solid, conservative voting record in Congress (with some exceptions — there are always exceptions).
But Santorum would make a poor Republican nominee.
Because he has phrased his socially conservative views in vivid terms, he is precisely the sort of candidate who will evoke a Pavlovian response from the press. Just as they were driven mad by Sarah Palin, they will be outraged by Rick Santorum. The campaign will be cluttered by the continual discovery of “controversial” Santorum quotes from the past three decades, and precious time will be lost as he explains, justifies, or withdraws his comments on women in the workforce, contraception, gay unions, Obama’s “theology” (by which he did not mean to question the president’s faith, something he’ll have to explain over and over), and so forth.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
You cannot reason from “God cannot tempt” scripture to “the devil has no hand in some sin.” I believe there is scriptural evidence that the devil does have a hand in all human sin, whether through past chains of events or actively in the present. The devil certainly is there cheering at all human sin, if nothing more. The fear of the Lord is “to hate all evil” and you have to have a coherent view of evil in order to be able to coherently hate it without hating what is righteous as well.
You’re making assumptions not posited in scripture.
Charen makes some valid points. I will say that of the four men standing, for me, number one is Newt. Two is Rick. Three is Ron and if mitt is the nominee I’ll sit out the presidential election.
And the gap between Newt and Rick is pretty wide. I think Newt would skewer Obama in a debate. I think Santorum would go tongue tied. I also know that the left is scared to death of Rick for reasons that have nothing to do with how good a president he would make.
He’s like a guy running for president saying he hates GM cars, driving off plenty of voters for no reason.
The more I hear him actually say, the more convinced he may even be worse than Ron Paul at being too blunt to be running for president.
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