now. right now. paul: won iowa because of it, in missouri because of it, in minnesota because of it and in colorado his vote was bigger frankly than the social conservative base. that s an asset. it is an asset right now among certain segments of the g.o.p. but, dorothy s got a point. rick santorrum s distinguished himself politically as a social conservative. the question, can he bring in other parts of the g.o.p. coalition, the free market, as well as the defense and so forth. and you need all three stools of the leg to make this work and the question is, does rick santorrum? we ll find out if rick santorrum has staying power in upcoming contest in arizona and michigan, because that s where romney will actually be contesting. one of the reasons he did so well this week is because, let s face it, romney did not spend a lot of times in the states. santorum had a lot of face time
rick santorrum called me this week after our editorial he says, look, you ve got it wrong. my message is broader than social conservative. i start with freedom, i start with the economic context we re in, my social message is crucial, but it s only part of that. were we unfair to santorum? i don t believe so, because he hasn t really emphasized the things he was describing to you, up until this points. he s been running mainly as a social conservative, and the family values guy. but, what we re describing here or trying to describe is politics at a very high level, but the politician is going to compete for the presidency of the united states and they have to be adept. they have to be able to adjust, they have to change their game plan and the question is whether rick santorum has the political skills to do that. i suspect that he does. he s a very smart guy, he s been in politics for a long time and he knows the issues. it s going to be really interesting to see in the primaries a
infallibility of the government to make the decisions. and sister carol of the health care association separated this thing further to dorothy s point. it widens the question. and questions of noncatholic institutions and leaves catholics in the middle with the impression that obama dislikes their church and is at war with them. and what about the opposition, their response so far has been muted and where do you think they ll come out. i think that s hard to predict. they were very angry about this. i think what the bishops understood finally and what i think you re going to hear a lot more of now, was that there was a mandate to force them to do something to meet this. now, obamacare, this health care plan was something the president didn t want to talk about. i think the presidential candidates now have a hook to explain the mandate beneath