Rick Santorum? Really?

It’s a sign of just how much the Republicans hate Mitt Romney that they’ll even vote for Rick Santorum over him. Santorum won all three of yesterday’s caucuses, prolonging the awesome spectacle that is the GOP primary.

I’ve never really thought of Santorum as anything more than a joke. This is a guy who couldn’t even maintain his Senate seat in his home state of Pennsylvania; he’s not going anywhere against Barack Obama. I suspect Republican voters realize that, too, but they can’t seem to stomach Romney at all.

Now that he has a few wins under his belt, we can expect multi-millionaire mitt Romney to spend millions of dollars smearing Santorum. Man, I love this race.

Mitt Romney has the GOP primary just about wrapped up, having dispatched Rick Perry and facing only the unfunded, unorganized Rick Santorum [NSFW] and crazy lunatic Ron Paul. There’s only one remaining opponent for Romney to contend with: the media.

Here’s Romney’s problem: The media loves a horse race. They would desperately love to see a repeat of the long slog between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That means they’ll cling to absolutely any news that can make it appear that there’s a race.

In the coming weeks, the media will attempt to do Rick Santorum’s job for him. Santorum doesn’t have a national organization, and it’s unlikely he could do much to capitalize on his showing in Iowa without help. So news organizations will have to do what they can to elevate his campaign to a legitimate contender to Romney, which means you’ll be hearing so much about Santorum it will make you sick.

It won’t work, of course. Santorum isn’t a viable alternative to Romney, who is going to cruise to the nomination. But Romney will be hard-pressed to show that he’s closed the deal. The media will fight him tooth and nail.

There are a number of things that I think make America great. Our Constitutional freedoms. The strength of the rule of law throughout our history. Our lack of a hereditary aristocracy. Our history as a land of opportunity for all. The revolutionary impacts of our scientific and technological advances.

Rick Santorum, Republican presidential candidate and right-wing loon, doesn’t appear to buy that. He says we were simply born great, whatever that means.

“We have a president who does not understand what American exceptionalism is,” [Santorum] said.

He faulted President Obama for telling an audience last month that America “would not be a great country” without the entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare.

“Stunning,” Santorum said. “America was born great. The president of the United States doesn’t understand who we are.”

First, if I recall correctly, Obama said we would not be as great a nation without Social Security and Medicare. I agree with him wholeheartedly. If we were to allow seniors to be sent to the poor farm, that would be a serious moral failing.

Even worse, though, is Santorum’s take on American exceptionalism. Born great? Whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, I hope you’re wildly dissatisfied with that. We’re not great because of our values or history? There’s nothing that makes us great? We just are? What are we, children?

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