Rick Santorum, campaigning at a church, says he's running for more than just pope. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)
Um, Ricky?
Too late.
Rick Santorum is hoping to turn the political conversation away from the social and cultural issues that have dominated his quest for the Republican presidential nomination so far and focus instead on the economy as he prepares to compete in the big, recession-plagued battleground state of Michigan.
Republicans were elected in 2010, in large part, by promising to focus on nothing but jobs, jobs, jobs. Since then, they've focused on pretty much everything
but jobs—NPR, Planned Parenthood, ACORN, bailouts, those New Black Panther dudes, earmarks, birth certificates, light bulbs, and now, of course, birth control. You get the idea.
It was hard for Republicans to talk about jobs when no one had them and voter pessimism was high. It's even harder now that the economy is showing genuine signs of life and consumer confidence is rising. The NASDAQ just hit an 11-year high, while the DOW just hit its own 4-year high. Obama's numbers on the economy are rising.
So they jumped with glee at the thought of wedging voters on birth control, only to find that people decided they liked birth control ... 40 years ago.
So now, after endless moralizing and sanctimonious preaching against sex for fun, Santorum wants to pretend he's got something else in his pocket? Ha ha ha!
He's a Republican. His job plan is to cut taxes for Mitt Romney. There. Done. Now that that's out of the way, he can get back to talking about what he really wants to talk about:
Your bedroom.