What does he mean, "JUST a paler shade?" It's the defining distinction for many Republicans.

He's a smooth one, that Santorum.

A Papist has president? I don't think that's a good idea. He'll take all his instruction from Opus Dei.

Besides, look what happened to the last one. And he was a lot more fun.

I really, really hope we don't live in a country where Santorum could be president. Please don't prove me wrong.

Oh no, he didn't!

I will laugh and laugh and laugh if the evangelicals are forced to support a Catholic candidate. Oh how the Pentecostals will revolt.

I do not have enough faith in the general electorate to hope for a Santorum nomination.

@6 how, exactly, could that rub them any less the wrong way than being asked to support a mormon?

Aedan Dear, The whore of Babylon, with her statues and incense, is immesurably worse than that cult of non-Christian polygamists. It's in that book of acid trips known as Revelations.

Considering they're all paler than "what we have," is Santorum trying to establish Mormonism as closer to black than his "contrast," white Catholicism? Seems race-coded to me.

the longer rick santorum is out front representing the republican party, the better. that is who they are. that is how they will legislate on all social issues. be loud & proud rick. and if america chooses you, then we will deserve what we get.

@8, it's true; Catholics are absolutely abhorrent to a particular strain of Christianist. The Ku Klux Klan put Catholicism on a par with Negroes and Communists. Not too many Christianists today will speak against black people anymore, but Catholics and Communists....SPAWN OF SATAN, and yes, they really do mean that literally. Mormons, in contrast, are merely wrong.

In the real world, Santorum would be a joy to behold, because he'd lose in a landslide that made Goldwater look like a champion.

Of course,when push comes to shove, the Black Guy will create more unsettling nightmares after all, so they'll put their backs to the wall for the final battle against evil (also meant literally) with the Catholics, and let God sort 'em out afterwards.

I would love to see evangelicals unite behind Santorum. Maybe when they got beat it would send them scuttling back into their holes for a few years.

How can Evangelicals get behind a Papist? Don't Catholics have a different interpretation of Jesus' comeback? I'm pretty sure they don't believe in the rapture.

If music be the food of love
Then laughter is it's queen

And likewise if behind is in front
Then dirt in truth is clean

Fnarf, I think you're on to something- something that'll be spooky and maybe hilarious. When you mention that it'll be 'the final battle against evil', you're hinting at the shape the nomination battle may actually take.

The evangelicals may very well go full-on crazy, and frame the nomination process as their battlefield. They might very well intentionally apply the 'it's God's final battle against Evil in 2012!' rhetoric, and whip their congregations all up in a tizzy about it.

It won't be about taxes, or wealth, or jobs... the entire nominating process could devolve into a shouting match about whether these are the end-times or not. Their flock could be told that they are voting, literally, for their eternal souls this time around.

And I know there's constant background noise about it, but it could really, really heat up this year. It will be interesting...

HAH! Twice as many people in this country are conservative as they are liberal, and Barack Hussein Obama - the Kenyan Marxist homosexual - is a flat out Marxofascist.

Mitt Romney is a RINO liberal, but he is not a traitor or a usurper like Barry Soetoro.

Anything to get that kenyan turd out of office!

@17

You really should read the lable before you use solvents. Always work in a well ventilated space.

What we really need is a paler shade of Santorum