Monday, February 27, 2012

College Choice

Rick Santorum thinks that going to college is only for snobs.

TROY, MICHIGAN — At an Americans For Prosperity-sponsored tea party rally here Saturday, Rick Santorum trumpeted his connections to the working class by attacking President Obama’s plan to make college more accessible to Americans.

“President Obama wants everybody in America to go to college,” Santorum said. “What a snob!”

The crowd laughed and applauded wildly. But the last time Santorum ran for public office — his ill-fated 2006 Senate reelection campaign — he was right there with Obama, running on his promise to make college more accessible to all Pennsylvanians.

Here’s a link to Santorum’s 2006 Senate campaign website, as stored on Archive.org. Right there in black and white is his “Commitment to Higher Education.”

From the text:

“In addition to Rick’s support of ensuring that primary and secondary schools in Pennsylvania are equipped for success, he is equally committed to ensuring the every Pennsylvanian has access to higher education,” the site reads. “Rick Santorum has supported legislative solutions that provide loans, grants, and tax incentives to make higher education more accessible and affordable.”

So what is it that made Mr. Santorum change his mind so quickly? It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that whatever President Obama is for, he’s against? Nah, not a chance. By the way, how did the grandson of a coal miner in Pennsylvania overcome the elitism and snobbery to go to college, grad school and law school and still turn out to be a medieval twerp? Sounds like the liberal indoctrination failed on that one.

It’s a real crowd-pleaser for a GOP candidate to rail against the elites and the pointy-headed college panty-waists, but I’ll bet you that if you asked any one of those Tea Partiers there if their kid had a chance to go to college — be it Harvard, Michigan, or Wossamotta U — they’d go for it in a heartbeat and find a way to pay for it with loans, grants, or tax incentives.