Crazy or just conservative? [updated]

This interview was included in my previous post but I think it deserves more attention. Watch the whole thing and pass it on.



You'll notice the video's header: "Santorum confirms his craziness." Obviously, the calcified Bob Schieffer, with all his head-shaking, blurred distinctions, and mischaracterizations of the candidate's points, wants us to believe that Santorum is nuts. Mr. Schieffer thinks that any one of those points, all of which spring from the view that smaller, less intrusive government is better than big, coercive government, is enough to disqualify Santorum as a presidential contender.

But if Americans actually listen to more than a twenty-second sound bite, will they think Santorum is crazy? I don't know the answer.

No one else has shown any interest in wresting power from the government school leviathan and giving it back to parents. No one else has pointed out that Obamacare will mandate coverage for risky, aggressive prenatal tests that diagnose conditions that can only be "treated" with abortions. I think Santorum articulates these conservative positions beautifully.

If that doesn't work for you, King Shamus suggests another way to look at it:

How could Rick Santorum–even if all of the Pennsylvanian’s haters are right about his most fevered sexually repressed sweater-vestified Opus Dei-fueled fetus-empowering right-to-lifer fantasies–do any worse than the last four years?

Look, it isn’t February 2011. There aren’t 10 boutique GOP candidates left to pick and choose from. Nobody is waiting with bated breath for the results of the Ames straw poll.

Real votes have been cast. Actual primaries and caucuses have winnowed the field. Gingrich, Paul, Romney and Santorum are the choices the GOP has left. Make your peace with that admittedly depressing reality and move on.

In the meantime, Obama still wants to give the US Constitution the business.

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Update: Rush was all over this in his show today: Rick is Right About Obama's Political Theology, but Poor Old Bob Schieffer Thinks He's Talking to Somebody from Mars:

So Santorum shows up on Slay the Nation yesterday, Bob Schieffer, he's 74; I said 92. He's 74 years old. And Schieffer actually seemed like he was talking to somebody from Mars. He looked at Santorum and he literally could not fathom that a living, breathing human being believes -- much less would say -- these things. So he asked Santorum about his remarks that Obama's agenda is about some phony theology. "Senator, I've got to ask you, what in the world were you talking about, sir?"

Read the rest.

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James Pethokoukis agrees with Rick (and me): Santorum is right about U.S. ‘factory schools’

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Quin Hillyer thinks what I think:

Unless I missed something, I agree with EVERY.... SINGLE.... WORD uttered by Rick Santorum in his interview on Face the Nation yesterday. Bob Schieffer was remarkably hostile, but Santorum kept his equanimity, kept smiling, didn't back down, but never got peevish (although he did, rightly, insist on correcting a misstatement by Bob Schieffer about his child being "stillborn"). Santorum is right that mandated amnio tests are a horrible idea; right that federal intervention in education is a bad idea; and right that some environmental extremism amounts (in a CLEAR attempt at metaphor rather than direct meaning) to a kind of "theology." Indeed, he took time in his Ohio speech (at issue on Face the Nation) to explain that he was NOT talking about Obama's theology of "the Bible," in other words not talking about his actual religious faith, but instead saying that the belief system in extreme environmentalism was a sort of theology.

Read the rest, in which Mr. Hillyer offers RS some good advice.

One more from Rich Lowry: In Vicious, Personal Attack, Rick Santorum Questions the President’s….Environmental Views

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Many thanks to Michelle Malkin for the Buzzworthy link.

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