Sex and the Republicans...

All of a sudden, Rick Santorum sweeps Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri in the campaign for GOP presidential nomination. Rick, who speaks as if he is either euphoric or in agony, and is squeaky clean, was almost forgotten owing to his poor showing in previous significant primaries. Romney fell about the same distance that Santorum gained. Pundits attribute this to various factors.

The states in question are so called heartland states. They adhere to base Christian values best expressed among the candidates by Santorum. No abortion, no birth control, no sterilization, hawkish, balanced budget; in short a social and fiscal conservative.

Romney failed to capture the imagination of the heartland. He is dull, boring, cold, and has difficulty exciting the electorate. No mention of his being a Mormon, but he has embraced birth control and abortion in the past.

Another reason is possibly the cause, but much more interesting. It has to do with a feature of Obama care. According to the latest health plan,  female employees are granted through obligatory employment insurance, access to birth control devices, abortions and related population control procedures. This entitlement has just been digested to the point where the Catholic church and other conservative religious groups are calling foul. As employers, these institutions are obligated to include in their employee insurance programs all the above mentioned entitlements, even though they are against them as principles of their faith. American bishops are up in arms and have not hesitated to say so from their pulpits. They argue against these birth control devices on moral grounds and are adamant that such entitlements should not be made obligatory for their catholic as well as their non-catholic female employees. You are undoubtedly aware that the Catholic church is a major US employer owning primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions, hospitals, charities and other service organizations.

Obama, through Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has stepped right into the poo. Religious conservatives, evangelicals and Americas 70 odd million Catholics are up in arms, even those who practice birth control. As a concession, Obama has granted a year's grace before the law comes into effect. This was done partly to seek out a means of accommodating the religious conservatives, but makes no promises about voiding or amending the law.

Enter Rick Santorum, the Holy Ghost incarnate, a practicing Catholic with umpteen kids. Some say the subject law played into his hands given his staunch anti abortion etc. position. I think this is unlikely as the realization and media attention over the law was far to recent for it to be digested by the heartland masses and converted into votes.

My take is that Romney remains the most likely candidate to win the GOP nomination. This is not to ignore this much loss of face and momentum resulting from the heartland elections. Colorado was a particularly hard loss for Mitt to swallow as he won the state in the last election. Of the three, Colorado is the most important, but does not compare with the big population states like California, Ohio, New York and others.