And, in 2002, if Santorum had taken just a minute to check, he would have learned that Sandusky was a kiddie raper perv? Despite the fact, which you mentioned, that Penn State was/is a cesspool of silence? That's a bit of an oxymoron, no?
As my tagline (sadly) indicates, I don't really have a horse in this race. But I object to a syllogism that says:
Santorum claims to be a family values candidate.
Jerry Sandusky is a kidde raper pervert.
Santorum sponsored an award for Sandusky.
Therefore, Santorum is not really a family values candidate.
Or, by extension, Santorum condones kiddie raper perverts because of hypocrisy, lack of effort, or political expediency.
I reject the above hypotheses and I go directly to Occam's Razor, which states: "from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false."
For crying out loud--the most obvious reason that Santorum sponsored an award for (kiddie raper pervert Jerry Sandusky) is that he didn't know that Sandusky was a kiddie raper pervert.
Yes your points are valid and I don’t disagree.