Rick Santorum’s World Wrestling Federation Experience Won’t Help Him Win This Fight

Rick Santorum’s losses in the Michigan and Arizona primaries should signal the beginning of the end to his Republican presidential bid, as voters nationwide begin to figure out that he is a jackass.

Most folks in Pennsylvania already know this, but the rest of the country is just getting a taste of Santorum’s warped worldview. The fact that Santorum’s campaign managed to gain any traction, shows how the GOP has been hijacked by wing nuts.

Santorum’s fire and brimstone rhetoric has long seemed like something from The Scarlet Letter. But in the past 10 days, the former Pennsylvania senator has managed to hit new highs on the nutty scale.

First, Santorum claimed President Obama has a “phony theology,” before backpedaling and saying he accepted the president is a Christian. Over the weekend, Santorum took a shot at John F. Kennedy’s speech in which he said he believed in an “America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” Santorum said such talk made him want to “throw up.”

When that line backfired, Santorum said he wished he could take it back. But Ricky is a hot head who blurts out self-righteous effluent when he is on his soapbox. Maybe Santorum’s sweater vest is too tight, but he clearly lacks the temperament to be president. He also lacks any basic understanding of what Kennedy really said.

Santorum should go back and re-read Kennedy’s speech. While he is at it, Santorum should also re-read the First Amendment and Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut in which he argues for the need to build “a wall of separation between church and state.”

Santorum should also keep in mind he is running for president, not alter boy. Then again, his wife thinks he is on a mission from god. Maybe that’s why Father Santorum thinks he knows what’s best.

That may also explain how Santorum really outdid himself in a speech on Saturday in which he called Obama a “snob” for saying he wants every American to go to college. Santorum went on to talk about “liberal college professors” trying to “indoctrinate” students.

Santorum claimed in an interview with Glenn Beck that “62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it.” He provided no sourcing for such a claim. As with many of Santorum’s statements, this one is flat wrong.

In fact, multiple studies have found the opposite is true. A 2007 study published in the journal Social Forces found that Americans who don’t go to college experience a steeper decline in their religiosity than those who do. Somehow Rick escaped the vast left-wing conspiracy when he picked up his three different college degrees. He also has sent two of his kids off to college where the devil lurks.

Perhaps a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but how did getting a good education suddenly become an issue to campaign against? Granted, college isn’t for everyone, though the unemployment rate for those with only a high school degree is double the rate for those who went to college.

It is also pretty clear the country is falling behind its global competitors when it comes to turning out scientists and engineers. Most decent jobs these days require not only a college education, but an advanced degree.

Not to mention, Santorum’s comment is once again wrong. Obama didn’t say everyone needs to go to Harvard. He has been a champion of community colleges and trade schools. The president has also been fighting to make college more affordable to every family. How that makes Obama a snob is unclear.

Hey, not everyone can work as a lobbyist for the World Wrestling Federation—a job that Santorum once held. How that sleazy work jives with Santorum’s family values is unclear. Then again, Santorum is better at lecturing everyone else on what is right and wrong.

It is that special pompous quality that prompted former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey to quip shortly after Santorum joined the senate: “Santorum? Is that Latin for asshole?”

Fortunately when it comes to Santorum’s presidential bid, the end is near.