Campaigning in Missouri in advance of the caucuses at which the state's delegates will be awarded, Mitt Romney
left no doubt about the impact of Rick Santorum's continuing presence in the Republican presidential primary, saying: "Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that."
Romney was allegedly talking about how he would reduce debt. But the cuts he listed are so minimal and so targeted to the id of the Republican base that not even someone as stupid as Romney thinks voters are would seriously believe he was really talking about debt here:
"The test is pretty simple. Is the program so critical, it's worth borrowing money from china to pay for it? And on that basis of course you get rid of Obamacare, that's the easy one. Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. The subsidy for Amtrak, I'd eliminate that. The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities," he said.
There's just a whole bundle of stupid, insulting pandering here: Yes, let's get rid of Amtrak and increase our dependence on fossil fuels! That's a sound plan for cutting the deficit.
But "Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that" is extra special. Remember, Mitt Romney is a guy who, running for Senate in Massachusetts in 1994, attended a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, with his wife writing the organization a $150 check. In 2002, running for governor in Massachusetts, he was a fan of Planned Parenthood. But with Rick "sexual freedom has had its down sides, and certainly birth control is part of that" Santorum still winning primaries, denying Romney the presidential nomination he believed was his to walk into, well, "Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that."
