Santorum Stones Romney on Health Care –But Lives in a Glass House Himself

No surprise, Rick Santorum is attacking Mitt Romney’s record on health care. He’s going after Romney for instituting the prototype for “Obamacare” in Massachusetts. Santorum is right about that, and it is a vulnerability for Romney at least in the GOP primary. It’s a big part of the reason that Romney has failed to catch fire among the conservative “base.”

No surprise, Rick Santorum is attacking Mitt Romney’s record on health care. He’s going after Romney for instituting the prototype for “Obamacare” in Massachusetts. Santorum is right about that, and it is a vulnerability for Romney at least in the GOP primary. It’s a big part of the reason that Romney has failed to catch fire among the conservative “base.”

And yet just about the best thing that could happen to Romney is to make it through to the nomination while being considered a moderate by the GOP faithful. Is someone who thinks Obama is a communist Muslim Kenyan really going to be any less likely to vote for Romney than Gingrich or Santorum in the general election? Meanwhile, the independent (aka, moderate) electorate that decides the election will be a lot more likely to vote for Romney when they learn he’s not right wing enough for the purists.

People who care about health care aren’t going to be impressed when they read Santorum’s plans for health reform. If Santorum’s platform were a high school essay it would come back from the teacher with an F for poor logic, lack of originality and  inappropriate use of CAPITAL LETTERS. Santorum basically wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a mishmash of slogans and tired non-fixes from the scrap bin, like the idea of allowing insurers to sell insurance across state lines (another way of saying usurping states rights when it’s convenient to do so.)