“Rick Santorum isn’t confident he’ll carry Michigan, despite plans to campaign here every day until Tuesday’s primary.

“Santorum has lost some of the spring in his step as a series of polls show his lead in the state giving way to a likely Romney.

“‘We’re gonna try,’ Santorum told reporters here Friday night when asked if he’ll win the state, adding ‘We’re going to do the best we can.'”

“Rick Santorum painted a grim picture of American life on Friday night, offering not a feel-good speech but a feel-bad speech…

“Mr. Santorum spoke for almost an hour, with frequent digs at the news media. His bleak recitation left his listeners, who were standing the entire time, mostly silent except for their occasional applause.

“His underlying theme was that he is a man of abiding principle and conviction with a 10-point “economic freedom agenda” to revitalize American industry and limit the spending and reach of government. But his description of the problems that he hopes to address seemed to cast a pall over the room…

“Americans, he said, are inclined to take care of one another and their neighbors and build strong communities. ‘One of the great things about America is we believe if we just do that, everything is going to be fine in America,’ he said, in an urgent tone. ‘You know what? It usually is. But not now.'”

“He is an engagingly happy warrior, except when he is not. Then he is an angry prophet of a dystopian future in which, he has warned, people will be ‘holed up in their homes afraid to go outside at night.’ He has the right forebodings but might have the wrong profession. Presidential candidates do not thrive as apostles of social regeneration; they are expected to be as sunny as Ronald Reagan was as he assured voters that they were as virtuous as their government was tedious…

“Romney is right about the futility of many current policies, but being offended by irrationality is insufficient. Santorum is right to be alarmed by many cultural trends but implies that religion must be the nexus between politics and cultural reform. Romney is not attracting people who want rationality leavened by romance. Santorum is repelling people who want politics unmediated by theology.

“Neither Romney nor Santorum looks like a formidable candidate for November.”

“[T]he press has not had to invent controversial remarks by Santorum, who has supplied them himself. He has said that Satan is undermining America, in part by corrupting mainline Protestantism; that liberal versions of Christianity are distortions of the creed; that as president he would speak out against birth control, and that states should be free to prohibit it; and that John McCain ‘doesn’t have any’ religious views.

“Some of his comments are indefensible, and even some of Santorum’s defensible assertions would have been better left to someone else — someone not seeking the presidency — to say. Santorum’s remarks about Senator McCain were unwise and uncharitable. Nor do we need political leaders to share their theological judgments about the various denominations that call themselves Christian. There is no good reason for a prospective president to pledge to lecture Americans about contraception…

“If he does not heed this lesson, he risks doing damage to the causes he rightly holds dear.”

“No one can doubt that his opposition to contraception and his recent denunciations of prenatal testing and women in combat reflect his deep moral and religious beliefs.

“But they also allow opponents to pigeonhole Santorum as a religious conservative despite his considerable record on and knowledge of economic and foreign-policy issues.

“It is political malpractice to give opponents such an opening in a year when voters are overwhelmingly focused on the economy and the Obama Democrats’ vast expansion of the size and scope of government.

“It’s unfortunate also since Santorum sometimes make similar points in a less inflammatory manner.”

“The prospect of four more years of President Barack Obama holds some appeal for many Americans but probably not for most Republicans. It may give doubters among them some comfort, however, to know that Obama and Santorum share the same prayer: that Santorum be the Republican nominee.

“It gives me no pleasure to rap Santorum, a man I know and respect even if I disagree with him on some issues. Not that he minds. He’s a scrapper who loves a fight — and he forgives. Bottom line: Santorum is a good man. He’s just a good man in the wrong century.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean he’s wrong about everything, but he’s so far out of step with the majority of Americans that he can’t hope to win the votes of moderates and independents so crucial to victory in November. The Republican Party’s insistence on conservative purity, meanwhile, will result in the cold comfort of defeat with honor and, in the longer term, potential extinction.”

Via Breitbart TV.

““The second thing — and this always interests me about it — most of us when something bad happens, we sort of skirt by it and want to think about some positive thing. Santorum, through the whole course of his career, has always looked at the tragedy in the face and dwelt upon it.”