Morning Joe 2/21/2012 -- Second thoughts on Santorum

Joe and Mika are on vacation, so Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle are hosting, and today they had Michael Steele, John Heilemann, Mark Halperin, Andrea Mitchell, Eugene Robinson, and a few other pundits on to talk about Romney and Santorum, Obama and his reelection chances, Iran and Israel, and a few other topics, Like Gingrich saying Obama is a foreign policy nightmare. Santorum is talking about Obama's secular theology, and the media still rag Romney because he feels comfortable in Michigan with the height of the trees. I understand what Romney was saying -- I spent a while out west, and when I returned to the south, one of the first things that gave me a good comfortable feeling were the trees and the rivers.

I have no idea which way the Republican race will go, but I have to believe that GOP voters will come to their senses and reject Santorum. Eugene Washington is writing a column about Santorum bringing down the GOP, and I agree -- if religious conservatives who think government should legislate morality rally around Santorum and make him the nominee, the GOP is over for a long time. Santorum is mad, and he feels power by tapping into populist anger, but the social conservatives are missing the point. Freedom has to be expanded to cover all Americans, even those who make whoopie in strange ways.

This election should be about liberty, individual rights, non-intervention overseas -- a rejection of statism. America has to be prepared for Europe's fiancial collapse, a bursting bubble in China, and a war between Israel and Iran. America has to be the safe haven of liberty for those who are destroyed by statism all over the world. If you want to see a modern, immediate example of the end result of statism, look to Greece. We have to reject statism in America, and talking about abortion, contraception, kinky sex and theology will not get us to the place we need to be.