Santorum Loved College in 2006

February 28, 2012 by 20 Comments

Talking Points Memo catches Rick Santorum in an obvious contradiction, bashing Obama for wanting more people to go to college in order to “indoctrinate” them while he was running in 2006 on a platform of increasing access to college for more people.

Here’s a link to Santorum’s 2006 Senate campaign website, as stored on Archive.org. Right there in black and white is his “Commitment to Higher Education.”

From the text:

“In addition to Rick’s support of ensuring that primary and secondary schools in Pennsylvania are equipped for success, he is equally committed to ensuring the every Pennsylvanian has access to higher education,” the site reads. “Rick Santorum has supported legislative solutions that provide loans, grants, and tax incentives to make higher education more accessible and affordable.”

And here he is from Michigan the other day:

Here in Troy today, Santorum’s take on the importance of making college more affordable was a little different.

“There are good, decent men and women who work hard every day and put their skills to the test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor,” Santorum said. “That’s why [Obama] wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”

“I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his,” Santorum added.

Whatever it takes, right? Any issue you can demagogue to get the morons behind you is fair game.

Filed Under: Politics 20 Comments
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After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

  • Larry

    Obama hadn’t come out for education then. Duh!

  • RealityBasedSteve

    Especially since what Obama really SAID isn’t at all what has been turned into the talking point. What Obama said is:

    And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country — and this country needs and values the talents of every American.”

    This comes from Little Green Footballs

    But then again, it’s only the Atheists who have a problem with telling falsehoods. /snark

    RBS

  • thinice

    Santorum’s policies all in one sentence: “Whatever Obama is for, I’m against; whatever Obama is against, I’m for.”

  • harold

    Santorum has more college degrees than Obama. They both have undergraduate degrees, and both went to law school, but of the two, only Santorum has an MBA.

    Santorum also have more degrees than Mitt Romney, who has an MBA but did not attend law school.

  • daved

    Santorum also have more degrees than Mitt Romney, who has an MBA but did not attend law school.

    Oh, yes, he did — he attended a 4-year, joint MBA/JD program at Harvard, so he has the same degrees as Santorum. The man is intelligent, he just has the consistency of a weather vane.

  • harold

    he has the same degrees as Santorum.

    Thank you for the correction. Thus they both have more degrees than Obama, who merely got a regular JD from Harvard.

    The man is intelligent,

    This is also true, independently, although it does not necessarily follow from either “has the same degrees as Santorum” or even “has degrees from Harvard”.

    he just has the consistency of a weather vane.

    Why are you insulting weather vanes?

  • http://rationaldreaming.com tacitus

    Two things spring to mind.

    One, isn’t it the dream of most American parents who missed out on going to college that their children get the chance to go?

    Two, I’m sure the dozens of conservative Christian colleges and universities aren’t too happy with old Rick right now.

    But, that said, he’ll likely get away with this nonsense with the Republican base, given that their frenzy for the red meat he is tossing them tends to dull their reasoning skills to the point of uselessness.

  • Skip White

    Good thing I graduated from college before Jan. 20, 2009. Otherwise, I would’ve been indoctrinated by Obama. Unless, of course, Obama used his Socialist-Muslim-Atheist time machine to go waaaaaaaaaay back to 2005 and supplant the indoctrination I guess I would’ve gotten from George W. Bush. Or something. Time travel makes my head hurt enough without involving wingnuttery.

  • anandine

    Whatever it takes, right? Any issue you can demagogue to get the morons behind you is fair game.

    You figured it out.

  • http://www.reason-being.com reasonbeing

    Wait–Santorum is a hypocrite? Crap, I was content to just think he was dumb… Seriously though, he is a dangerous person to this country. He is either completely ignorant of the separation of Church/State or he understands the concept and doesn’t care that craps all over it. Either way, he is not qualified to President. The fact that he has done so well, coupled with his sweater vest, make me “want me want to throw up”.

  • http://www.facebook.com/lezkimo suzysalaksartok

    ““That’s why [Obama] wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”

    “I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his,” Santorum added.”

    So…the children have no say? I’m guessing this is more of that ‘projection’ thing I’ve heard tell of.

  • d cwilson

    If I were Obama, I’d hold a press conference just to say, “I think the Golden Rule is an excellent way to deal with other people,” and then wait to see how Santorum will come out against it.

  • Michael Heath

    reasonbeing writes:

    Seriously though, [Rick Santorum] is a dangerous person to this country.

    Not really, the danger instead lies in there being so many conservative Christian voters who support Mr. Santorum’s arguments.

    I think it was H.L. Mencken who wrote [paraphrased], “We’re getting what we deserve, good and hard.” I do know Mencken wrote:

    As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

  • http://rationaldreaming.com tacitus

    Not really, the danger instead lies in there being so many conservative Christian voters who support Mr. Santorum’s arguments. I think it was H.L. Mencken who wrote [paraphrased], “We’re getting what we deserve, good and hard.”

    Unfortunately, the vocal conservative activists, be they religion or fiscally driven, often have an outsized influence on the policies direction in this country.

    When you look at the policies favored by self-described Republicans, Democrats and Independents, you will see that Independents tend to side with Democrats much more often that they do Republicans. Thus, in theory, anti-Republican forces should have a consistently sizable majority when it comes to driving the direction of America.

    What’s frustrating is that the Democrats in Congress are rarely able to get their act together enough to take advantage of that built-in majority and spend way too much being afraid of being painted as too left-wing even for positions that have a solid backing from most Independents as well as Democrats.

    Just growing a backbone would go a long way to shoring up support, and would probably force Republican opponents back toward the center once their demonization tactics stopped working. Sadly, I just don’t see it happening any time soon.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=648015874 markmcglone

    The Mencken “good and hard” quote is:

    Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and they deserve to get it good and hard. — H.L. Mencken

    I also like this one from Mark Twain:

    Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. — Mark Twain

  • vmanis1

    Obama should speak on the topic of breathing, and how he is strongly in favor of it. This would put paid to the entire Republican leadership.

  • iangould

    Yes, but the two contexts are totally different: Rick’s white.

  • Freeman

    It is discouraging to observe that the morons represent a voting bloc large enough to warrant pandering to.

  • eric

    Here’s what I see as the really sad thing. Used to be, the challenger would take a ridiculous counter-position to something reasonable the incumbent said. The voters would understand and smile. The challenger would understand and smile. Post election day, the challenger (if elected) would completely ignore that counter-position…and the voters would be happy with that. Because they knew all along what the candidate was doing.

    Now, it seems to be working like this: challenger takes a ridiculous counter-position. Voters think he’s actually sincere and demand he make good on his promises. Challenger finds himself supporting ridiculous legislation on something he never intended to support, just to keep his reelection chance alive.

    In this case, very much believe that Santorum’s “real” view is the 2006 one and his fake view is the current one. But I think that, if this spurred his election, he would ignore his real 2006 view and throw higher education under the bus just to keep his reelection chances high.

  • kermit.

    What bothers me is not so much that I get what I deserve, but that I keep getting what my neighbors deserve.