A day after saying President Barack Obama‘s agenda is about a "phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible," appearing to question the president’s Christianity, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum compared the upcoming U.S. election to the American run-up to World War II, appearing to compare Obama to Adolf Hitler, the fascist ruler of Nazi Germany blamed for World War II and the Holocaust.
In remarks yesterday at First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Georgia, Santorum compared the lack of alarm and outrage over Obama’s agenda to American complacency prior to World War II:
“Remember, the Greatest Generation, for a year and a half, sat on the sidelines while Europe was under darkness, where our closest ally, Britain, was being bombed and leveled, while Japan was spreading its cancer all throughout Southeast Asia. America sat from 1940, when France fell, to December of ’41, and did almost nothing.“Why? Because we’re a hopeful people. We think, ‘Well, you know, he’ll get better. You know, he’s a nice guy. I mean, it won’t be near as bad as what we think. This’ll be okay.’ Oh yeah, maybe he’s not the best guy, and after a while, you found out things about this guy over in Europe, and he’s not so good of a guy after all. But you know what? Why do we need to be involved? We’ll just take care of our own problems. Just get our families off to work and our kids off to school, and we’ll be okay.“It’s sort of the optimistic spirit of America but sometimes, sometimes it’s not okay. It’s going to be harder for this generation to figure this out. There’s no cataclysmic event.
Santorum never mentioned names, but it seemed pretty clear that the "nice guy" was Obama and "this guy over in Europe” was Hitler. But Santorum flatly rejects that suggestion.
"No, of course not," Santorum said dismissively when asked by a National Journal-CBS News reporter whether he was comparing the two. "The World War II metaphor is one I've used 100 times in my career," he insisted.
But who else could he have been talking about? Even the Romney campaign thinks Santorum was comparing Obama to Hitler:
“Senator Santorum is spending his time talking about — questioning the existence of public schools, questioning prenatal testing. Just yesterday, he was talking about World War II and making a comparison between President Obama and Hitler,” Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said today on msnbc’s The Daily Rundown:
Santorum is seeking the highest office in the United States. And he's comparing Obama to Hitler? Remember what happened when Hank Williams, Jr. made that comparison?
ESPN (permanently) dropped Williams' opening musical number from its Monday Night Football broadcasts:
Maybe Williams will be invited to sing at President Santorum's inauguration?
By the way, Santorum also said he was not criticizing the president’s Christian faith with his "phony theology" remark at a tea party rally on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, and was instead referring to Obama’s energy agenda.
Stewart later clarified, saying she "misspoke." Has she heard of the Freudian slip? And remember when Santorum failed to correct a voter in Iowa who called Obama a Muslim?:
He later told reporters that its not his job to correct voters he speaks with those who misidentify President Obama as Muslim:
And remember this is also the guy who after saying “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money” said he didn't really say "black" but actually said "blah" as he stumbled on a word:
Ed will have much more to say on Santorum's radical views tonight on The Ed Show at 8pET on msnbc.