Rick Santorum's candidacy ...

Evo

You don't think Santorum has extreme views? You agree with his views on rape victims, against contraception of any kind, including condoms, against pre-marital sex, etc...?

jduster

Well, rape does not change the moral dilemma abortion, pro-life or pro-choice. If the fetus is not a life, it's not a life. But if it is a life, then aborting it solely on the ground that its father was a rapist, is murder. But its inconsistent to say, if the fetus is a life, that its killing an innocent life, but its not killing an innocent life if it was procreated by rape.

While, I'm not against contraception or pre-marital sex, those are just his personal beliefs - not ideas he is actually proposing to make law.

Evo

You think he wouldn't appoint supreme court judges that would vote his way?

turbo

People who vote for presidential candidates without considering their capacity for judicial appointments are ignorant, and are endangering the rest of us. Some powers are best left entrusted to people with a bit of intelligence.

Angry Citizen

Obama is about as 'extreme' as the sport of golf. He is sadly centrist, even on the American political spectrum. Just because he's to the left of Hitler doesn't mean he's akin to Stalin...

jduster

I guess it is all relative.

Obama certainly is not communist. And he's to the right of many anarchists/socialists/OWS, but he's too far to the left for ME.

What views set the polar ends are more agreed upon than what views establish the center.

Angry Citizen

In what way is he too far to the left for you? I mean, if you believe Santorum is a moderate... *shrug* I think there's some misconceptions you have about politics in general. I'd sure like to correct them.

ThomasT

Santorum is apparently in favor of the, considered by some to be, exorbitant prices charged by big pharma. Definitely a basically status quo guy, imo, and a self-avowed religious fanatic as well. Imo, we would see no positive changes under the direction of somebody like Santorum.

SHISHKABOB

hmm, I guess that's how I feel too. He seems like he is too much under the sway of his religion.

Ryan_m_b

The controversy is not whether or not an embryo or a foetus is alive (it evidently is just like skin cells, gametes etc) the question is whether or not it is a person. Abortion is only wrong if you think that an embryo or foetus is deserving of person hood and where ever you want to argue that point you're going to need evidence to back up the claim. "Personhood begins at conception because that's when an intangible, immaterial, unverifiable, unevidenced soul attaches to it" is not a valid argument but it's the one that many pro-life groups use.

WhoWee

What are you suggesting as an alternative to our process?

turbo

We don't need an alternative. We need to have informed voters that will understand that their vote could put somebody in the white house who will appoint extremists to the supreme court. Santorum opposes all abortion, even in the case of rape or incest (familial abuse), so what would be his "litmus test" for Federal judges? Voters need to consider what kinds of appointments a President might make before pulling that lever. The power to appoint Federal judges for life-terms is not one to be taken lightly.

WhoWee

I'm certain there are Conservatives who fear appointments favoring the Left accordingly.

mheslep

In some jurisdictions "personhood" doesn't begin even after birth. A human (?) breathing on its own can be killed and the killer walk, if sufficient sympathy can be generated for the killer.

Infanticide conviction nets Alberta woman suspended sentence

WhoWee

Santorum is picking up momentum.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/politi...sts/index.html

"Santorum jolts GOP presidential race with 3-state sweep"

Jack21222

Are you certain of that? Here is the actual Rick Santorum quote:

His first sentence seems to indicate that he'd talk about contraception as president in some sort of official capacity.

And then, here is a note from a Washington Post article:
This would be a case where his personal opposition to birth control would spill into public policy.

Ryan_m_b

Supposing he did get in even if he didn't try or didn't succeed in pushing through laws against the sale of contraceptions or having pre-martial sex there's a lot he could do to damage contraceptive use and abortion in the US such as scrapping sex-ed, defunding planned parenthood etc.