End of the World

Elections matter, even just the process of elections matter...a lot.  Case in point.

So, Rick Santorum is now a challenger to Mitt Romney.  This circumstance is not all that surprising.  Mr. Santorum has good presence and seems likeable.  His views are highly conservative.  Among other things, Santorum is anti-gay marriage, in favor of adjusting social security and Medicare, and will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.  These messages play well to the Republican base. 

While it is way too early to predict the outcome of the Republican primary, it will be interesting to see what the Romney Super Pac’s come up with to disrupt Santorum’s momentum.  The Super Pac’s were able to destroy Newt Gingrich in Iowa and Florida with negative advertising that would make a polar bear blush.  The same thing might happen to Santorum. 

In any case, we can only hope Santorum is put out of the game.  He has used strong rhetoric against Iran, even suggesting airstrikes happen pretty much immediately.   ABC News reported this on January 1^st, 2012, just a little over a month ago, prior to Iranian threats to cut off the Straits of Hormuz:

Rick Santorum said today that he would be in favor of launching airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.  “We will degrade those facilities through airstrikes, and make it very public that we are doing that,” Santorum said on “Meet the Press.”

Iran leadership must be disturbed by that kind of hawkish talk.  If Santorum becomes the front runner, we can thoroughly expect some more rumblings from Iran.  Iran will not sit still while America elects someone determined to attack Iran nuclear facilities once in office. 

Rick Santorum might be a better candidate in another election cycle, with the benefit of years to soften his sometimes granite hard convictions, (he would do well not to talk of attacking another country prior to having knowledge of all the consequences).  Unlike Mitt Romney, Rick normally stands by his words, so we should believe Santorum when he says he will strike Iran.  Iran must believe it too and the closer Mr. Santorum is to becoming the US President, the more alarmed we should all be.  Please wake up Republicans, now you are playing with dynamite and we are all holding the stick.  Vote for Mitt, he’s bad, but he’s not that bad.