34 Comments

• seanomelb | Feb 29, 2012, 05:11 PM EST

  Santorum wishes to impose his christian"sharia"law on all the people

• IrelandNorth | Feb 29, 2012, 07:00 AM EST

  University/college degrees are just another currency. The mor prolific they are the less their exchange value, until the stag eis reached where you require a PhD to become a janitor, or a $1m to buy a sandwich. Besides, I think Santorum is over complimentary about colleges. Education is establishment propaganda after all.

• warlocks | Feb 29, 2012, 01:47 AM EST

  hey as a Catholic i would never Vote for Santorum he better go live in Europe we don't need the Catholic Church ( the Vatican) Calling the shots or making Laws on how to Run the United States . They can't root out the Rotten Corruption in their own chruch. as much as i don't care for Romney but their is very little choice . Obama has to go !! Let Religions take care of Religion and stay out of all Politics. its not their Business. I'm for seperation of Religion from Fed. & State Gov.

• warlocks | Feb 28, 2012, 07:58 PM EST

  Tonight,in Michigan and Arizona, the Clown Show continues, the circular firing squad now down, effectively, to two equally horrible choices for the GOP. Romney terrifies the right wing of the party - which now controls the party that once had many moderates and more than a few liberals - for they don't have a clue where he stands on anything. Saint Santorum, on the other hand, terrifies the old GOP, the genuine conservatives and the few moderates-in-hiding - for they know all too well where Santorum stands and where he stands is a sure loser come November. Neither candidate can moderate their extreme positions sufficiently to win the general election. This is a disaster of the GOP's own making. EphraimKibbey,hollabackgurl, McNamara31 and eiriamach(as always), great posts!

• EphraimKibbey | Feb 28, 2012, 03:56 PM EST

  Can a PARTY divided against itself long endure? The GOP has lost its moderates who now call themselves independents, too ashamed to associate with the current farce. In Michigan, half of the few who still claim membership, will vote for Crazy Rick because he fires them up appealing to their archaic beliefs. The other half will vote for pragmatist Romney who will say or do anything to get their vote because they think he might have a chance of winning in November. The Democrates will actually decide the GOP primary by voting for Rick as the clearest opposite to the President. What used to be the Grand Old Party of Lincoln is no longer in any way "Grand." It is now just the "Old" party spouting reactionary drivel to those too afraid to move into the 21st century with their children. America spent 8 years being run down by the Bush administration's give away to the 1%. After a promising start at recovery in 2009, the GOP put on the brakes again in 2011. Many of us limp along because of them. The auto industry is an example of what America could be again if it would just put these people's ides's in the trash heap history where failed policies belong. Vote for a Democrate and your own best interests.

• hollabackgurl | Feb 28, 2012, 12:56 PM EST

  A party of birthers, creationists, theocrats, climate-change deniers, nativists, gay-bashers and anti-abortionists cannot govern America.

• McNamara31 | Feb 28, 2012, 11:57 AM EST

  American politics and elections have degenerated into an utter farce. The GOP wields the sword of religion and family values purely as “tool” to pander and win votes. The past primary debates were nothing but a disgrace and humiliation of America in the face of the world. The so called “conservatives” sink lower each week trying to scrape some more votes from the bottom feeders in their party. As this side show goes on our real problems of debt and war and broken infrastructure grow worse each day. This party is allowing the 20% of extremists within the GOP to be its voice and have men like Sheldon Adelson fund its Super Pac’s with their hundreds of millions stamping out the individual voter’s voice. Then candidates like Santorum tell our children its “snobbish” to go to college while he himself holds several degrees. He continues to tread a very fine line with his rhetoric and the separation of church and state and sounds more like a Christian Mullah than a candidate each day. Its time for America to get the money out of politics and consider more political parties like Europe. Our two party system is bought, sold, propagandized, and broken beyond repair.

• timnolan1 | Feb 28, 2012, 10:03 AM EST

  Santorum is conservative, so why do so many people have problem with that? So he disagrees with homosexuality, he disagrees with contraception, he believes that life begins at conception. Why do so many people have a problem with that? Are you threatend by this? Does it cause you consider the depravity of your own lifestyle and come to grips with your own arrogance? I think the social issues are relevant, people don't want a President who favors infanticide, partial birth abortion,and other barbaric acts no doubt. Moreover, people want a leader with moral backbone. I find it interesting that the Irish from Ireland are so opposed to this guy. Why would the Irish turn on one of their own, a Catholic. It seems that the Ireland is going the way of Engand, a country that has lost its soul. Furthermore, is these very values espoused in Catholocism that were the impetus for the Irish to rise up and declare their freedom and independence. Lastly, the above comment about if you like Santorum, don't go to college, don't have sex, bla, bla is stupid and arrogant. Not much point in going to college if you are conservative? So I suppose if you declare yourself to be a liberal than you are eligible to go to school. What an interesting University environment you would have, nothing but liberals everywhere you go; not that would really make for a "well rounded education." You have to hand it to the lefties, they are the most closed mind people on earth.

• Chris1791 | Feb 28, 2012, 09:19 AM EST

  You really need to change the name of this publication. I would never have thought "IRISH" and I use that term very loosely would HATE CATHOLICS SO MUCH! I thought the majority of Irish were Catholics. The hate in the article & the pure HATE MONGERS with the ant-Catholic comments are unbelievable. If you idiots don't think brain washing happens in colleges in the US you are nuts. You must not have visited any colleges. Most of the comments look like they come from George Soros's Media Matters. You also do not understand our Consitution at all. It's freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion. You atheist have a religion it's called secularism. So you push your crap religion everyday by attacking anyone or anything religious. The people with the stupid hateful comments need to be excommunicated from Catholicism. You are NOT Catholic. Get a new religion and go elsewhere. You are the most pathetic Catholics I have ever seen. I realize your are from snub nirvana Manhattan. Every person I have ever know from Manhattan are hateful snobs is it in your water? I am going to a background check on Cahir O'Doherty and I bet I will find NOTHING but hate.

• eiriamach | Feb 28, 2012, 07:32 AM EST

  Which institution is the "indoctrination mill": US colleges, or the USCCB? Fortunately for the US, Santorum is no William F. Buckley! He never read Buckley's eloquent "God and Man at Yale," so he does not know that Buckley criticized academic freedom, i.e., professors critiquing the nation's political and economic policies. Academic freedom remains in both teaching and research. American public and private secular colleges teach critical thinking. They train students to become autonomous thinkers. It's still a radical approach that distinguishes American post-secondary education from third-level education in other places. Buckley would have liked universities to become what Santorum claims they now ARE-- "indoctrination mills" for theology and economics. But the best proof that they still teach critical thinking and not ideology is that Santorum, with three degrees, somehow managed to resist the liberal indoctrination that he claims professors impose. His own politics is the best argument that his criticism of higher ed is false. Public higher ed may be our last defense against the idea that those who pay the bill (taxpayers) get to decide what the "product" will be.

• EphraimKibbey | Feb 28, 2012, 12:07 AM EST

  @PiperMac52 - I know that "Sanitarium" SAYS that he would not support codifying his reactionary religous beliefs into American law, but how can I believe him watching GOP state after state doing just that. Laws against gay marriage which are obviously in violation of the equal rights amendment, laws requiring doctors to rape women with ultrasound devices if they choose to have an abortion and personhood bills that define a zygote as a human being contrary to the beliefs of 70% of the nation's populace have proven that, once in power, the GOP will do everything it can to turn America from a democracy into a theocracy. Where are the JOBS the GOP promised us if we voted for them? @lokionline - I too thought that way. Then I had a flashback to 2010, when college students and disillusioned democrates stayed home and independents, impatient at the slow recovery, voted for the GOP. Talk about not having the President's back! It would be a cruel twist of fate if we ended up with Crazy Rick as president. At lease we know Romney doesn't hold ANY beliefs to put into law.

• seanomelb | Feb 27, 2012, 10:12 PM EST

  Patricia he may not be hitler but he certainly is a middle of the road right wing christain fascist

• lokionline | Feb 27, 2012, 07:59 PM EST

  PatriciaMarya,you were doing well with your post. Then you ruined it by mentioning Hitler which undermines your arguments .

• seanomelb | Feb 27, 2012, 05:14 PM EST

  This man is a danger to the free world.A religious zealot.Will he incarcerate all ths who disbelieve him If elected. he'd become The USA's first petty little dictator.Heil Santorum And the ignorant teahadists applaud him how sad for the USA.

• PatriciaMarya | Feb 27, 2012, 04:18 PM EST

  This man who has three advanced degrees has the blatant nerve to call our President a snob because the POTUS wishes all of our youth to have an equal opportunity to higher education in order to level the playing field in today's competitive global world and no one in that audience called Santorum out as a Hypocrite? They instead cheered and laughed? And some of the IC commentators call the journalist anti-Catholic because he is stating the facts? I cannot believe that the circumstances written about in "Brave New World" have arrived. I thought Dick Cheney was frightening when he created the Mercenary/Corporate Contractor form of Military that has not only bankrupted our country but destroyed the lives of decent men and women who were "conscripted" via the use of the National Guard and the stop-loss form of draft for our Volunteer Military. Santorum stands ready to ruin what is left of our nation's common decency and I call out anybody who considers this man valid as beyond stupid. Problem is that no one is noticing that this is the way Hitler came into power by appealing to the lowest form of intelligence and pandering, pandering, pandering.

• alisaann | Feb 27, 2012, 03:57 PM EST

  religion has NO PLACE in politics...and the fact that those who are running for president SHOVING their relgion down everyone's throat....is just NOT RIGHT.....people shouldn't be electing presidents according to their religious beliefs. alisa

• jjkleprechaun | Feb 27, 2012, 01:53 PM EST

  Just for your info, Cahir, the late President Kennedy did, indeed, vow to keep his "private Faith" out of his public life and did it to such an extent that he kept it out of his private life as well...those facts have been known for years. As for Rick Santorum, you are deliberately and with malice of forethought and contortion of the spoken word telling the Irish world just how much you hate the Roman Catholic Faith. You are a failure in my opinion where the IC is concerned. May God forgive you.

• lokionline | Feb 27, 2012, 01:16 PM EST

  I am beginning to think that Santorum would be the best GOP nomination for America.
  
  If Romney wins you will get a nasty but essentially meaningless debate in the fall between two centrists. The basic Regan/Clinton/Bush/Obama Washington consensus that has governed in essentially the same way for the past 30 years will simply continue regardless of who wins the Presidency.
  
  On the other hand if Santorum is the GOP candidate you are likely to get a more clarifying debate in the Fall which will help resolve just where the majority of Americans stand in regard to the social issues that have plagued American politics.
  
  Perhaps it is time to stop prevaricating about the 'culture war' and get to the heart of the issues that appear to divide the US.
  
  I think this would be of benefit to Catholics of all political persuasions

• hybernia | Feb 27, 2012, 01:09 PM EST

  Rick Santorum should stop drying his hair in the microwave oven.

• katiemac | Feb 27, 2012, 12:31 PM EST

  Santorum is asked what he believes and answers candidly, and apparrently courageously, since he is guaranteed to be lambasted by liberal twits like Cahir at every turn. In a world where most politicians' belief systems blow like the wind in whatever direction the current audience requires (I call this the "love the one you're with' syndrome.), Santorum's consistency is refreshing. He doesn't ask that you believe what he believes, or that you live as he lives, he simply asks that he not be required to financially support the ruinous hedonism of the left. Misneac, you are correct. Irish Central is, at the core, incredibly anti-Catholic, it is run by efete, pseudo-intellectual, elitist liberals. But then so is Ireland.

• maryosullivan | Feb 27, 2012, 11:59 AM EST

  Would Santorum give people of all faiths an equal say in the public square? Or, as I suspect, would each faith be required to get his ok before speaking?

• hollabackgurl | Feb 27, 2012, 11:46 AM EST

  You should visit Ireland if you think IrishCentral is anti-Catholic (which it certainly is not). Santorum's a fanatic who doesn't believe in the separation of Church and State. Journalists are simply doing their job to inform us of this fact.

• misneac | Feb 27, 2012, 11:28 AM EST

  Iam a relatively new viewer of this website , and am appalled at the continuous anti catholic selection of articles . This site calls itself " IRISH CENTRAL " ! what a laugh , it is so bigoted and biased with no balance .

• Willipotts | Feb 27, 2012, 11:28 AM EST

  Rick Santorum is seriously psychotic and a closet puretin!

• PiperMac52 | Feb 27, 2012, 11:23 AM EST

  Rick Santorum is obviously running for President though he is a practicing traditional catholic having been asked by the liberal media his views on certain issues( a set up), he answered. The media asked him knowing full well what his answer would be. Have they ever asked Obama the same question, or about his affinity for Islam and his radical branch of Christianity as per Rev. jeremiah Wright? Of Course not. He gets a pass. Santorum does not intend to establish his beliefs as law if elected, nor could he.This whole conversation is a moot point and clearly a smear campaign from the left.

• danielk | Feb 27, 2012, 11:16 AM EST

  IrishSpring444's rant sounds like the attacks made on another intellectually-bankrupt shill for the left - Thomas Jefferson, who was also villifed over two hundred years ago by those who tried to use relgion to push their political agendas.....O'Doherty is not attacking the Catholic Church, simply Santorum's exaltation of ignorance....If an Iranian religious leader had made Santorum's remarks, Republicans would be saying how evil they were and how Americans should appreciate their freedoms...

• mrkennedy | Feb 27, 2012, 10:55 AM EST

  Cahir, you sound like you may be jealous of Santorum. Are you interested in being voted the new Pope after Pope Benedict retires this year at 85 so that you can continue to downgrade the Catholic teachings!!!

• carrickcourt | Feb 27, 2012, 10:45 AM EST

  What is the rant by IrishSpring444 all about? i wonder if they know. I would agree about Santorum. He is getting the support of Tea Party Republicans with his crazy talk no doubt but turning off the middle of the road USA voters.

• donal1951 | Feb 27, 2012, 10:44 AM EST

  We broke the no-Catholic-can-be-president rule in 1960, when I suspect most Catholics registered to vote cast their ballots for John F. Kennedy. As a result, I don't see Roman Catholics feeling compelled to vote for Sen. Santorum or Speaker Gingrich. We Republicans want the strongest candidate to face Barack Hussain Obama in November.

• Nicoletta | Feb 27, 2012, 10:44 AM EST

  I presume that the faith of your fathers is Catholic. You insult their memory by your continual anti-Catholic insults. They would be particularly bemused by your equating them with Islamists (last paragraph.)

• IrishSpring444 | Feb 27, 2012, 10:34 AM EST

  Freedom of religion isn't freedom from religion. The separation of church and state is now a pop-fiction myth, created by liberals who wish to push moral relativism as their compulsory faith. This writer is horribly midguided, probably another apostate, fallen-away, liberal Vatican II Catholic who has never read the catechsim, the history of the Catholic Church, the constitutional cases which misconstrued most of the founders ideas about the role of religion in the marketplace. Go read the quotes on relgion and public life from Ronald Reagan who DID understand the founders ... he will illuminate your sophomoric, lazy, intellectually-bankrupt and un-informed shilling for the left. But liberals are lazy thinkers ... and you won't.

• cillowen | Feb 27, 2012, 10:21 AM EST

  and the winner will be - an always is - a protected friend

• CelticQueenUSA | Feb 27, 2012, 09:48 AM EST

  He is a politician and would be useless in any of those jobs. Vote Obama when the time comes.

• jamieLM | Feb 27, 2012, 09:46 AM EST

  You must be suffering from "Santorumitis." Is it because you're afraid ALL Catholics are going to vote for him because he's a Catholic? You're not going to change the minds of those who like Santorum and those who don't like him don't need another rundown on his opinions and platform. We go it already. Other than being Catholic, why does Santorum merit so much space on an Irish website?