Here’s the state of our national politics: The frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination says that that President Barack Obama embraces a “phony theology”; that large-scale public education is an outdated idea, and that contraception is “not okay.” And let’s not forget his statement last month that he didn’t want to “make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”*
Yes, you heard all that right. If current polls hold up, Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania could be the presidential nominee of one of the nation’s two major parties. The most recent Gallup national tracking poll shows Santorum with a 6-point lead over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
At a campaign stop in Ohio yesterday, Santorum, an old-school, anti-contraception Catholic, asserted that Obama’s agenda sprang from a false theology. As quoted by the New York Times, Santorum said of Obama’s overall agenda:
“It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology,” he said. “But no less a theology.”
Not a theology based on the Bible. Funny, I’ve been thumbing through my Bible, trying to find Jesus’ injunction against birth control (not there), abortion (yes, it existed in his day) and public education (bupkis).
Well, okay, I concede that Jesus was probably home-schooled.
And I haven’t heard Santorum bleating that great quip from Jesus about how much easier it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven.
But never mind. Because Santorum isn’t really advancing a theological argument. He’s fanning the flames of culture war, speaking in a code that is easily deciphered by those determined to paint Obama as something other than a real American, those who want to believe he is a crypto-Muslim, those for whom his birth certificate is less than valid proof of his citizenship.
From the Times report, by Richard A. Oppel, Jr.:
Assertions that Mr. Obama is not a Christian, or that he is not an American, were rampant in the 2008 campaign…
[…]
Last month, a woman at one of Mr. Santorum’s campaign stops in Florida declared during a question-and-answer session that Mr. Obama was Muslim. According to an account by CNN, Mr. Santorum did not correct the woman’s statement, and he later said it was not his job to correct such statements.
Santorum was Bob Schieffer’s guest this morning on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” When the video posts, it will be here.
* Days after Santorum’s “black people” comment was reported, the candidate denied that he said the word “black”, contending that it was the word “blah” that he said. Mediaite has the video.
