Santorum and Romney Matchup

Last night's close shave in Michigan--with Mitt Romney beating Rick "Let Me Clean the Erasers" Santorum by only a few points--just underscored the central problem for the Mittster. Despite looking presidential, having a strong background, and having no real personal baggage, he just plain suffers from not being very good at being a politician. He just doesn't have that "win over the crowds" thing going on.

That's the only way you can explain a guy like Rick Santorum being a serious contender in the race at this point. Santroum, who laughably called the president a "snob" for proposing a program to get more kids to go to college. (Amazingly, he didn't use the phrase "fancy book learnin'" when he said that) Santorum, who "felt like throwing up" when he heard JFK's 1960 speech arguing against a religious test for the presidency, which was widely hailed as a sentiment that fired a shot against anti-Catholic bigotry in this country (and mind you I rarely have nice things to say about Kennedys). Santorum, who isn't content just privately disapproving of homosexuality, but feels the need to use the power of the state to deny any rights or recognition to gay relationships.

As an aside, Santorum seems to revel in this idea that Catholics and other religious people in this country are under attack by rabid secularists. (Though, he doesn't seem to be too concerned about Muslims being scapegoated or targeted. Apparently he's used up his concern on Christians.) This is particularly stupid, and not just because there's no basis for this fear. It also betrays a complete misreading of the First Amendment, which doesn't just prevent the government from establishing religion but also serves to protect relgious and atheistic beliefs from being interefered with by government power. This if anything allows religious minority beliefs (like Catholicism, which was actually persecuted in the past in places such as England) to flourish without reprisals against their adherents. Anyone seeing secular government as an "attack" against religion forgets that religion is far more protected by secular government than it would be by a sectarian government.

Romney's still going to take the nomination--I stick with my earlier prediction on that--but his failure to handily dispatch a preachy loon like Rick Santorum does not bode well for him in the long race. This likely won't matter--if the economy continues in the direction it's going, Obama's taking this thing in a cakewalk come November.