Santorum Calls Romney 'Just a Paler Shade of What We Have'

Rick Santorum, down in South Carolina with the rest of the troupe, decided Thursday afternoon to lump Mitt Romney's proposed policies in with President Obama, further confusing the capitalism debate to the point that it now sounds like an LSAT question with no real answer. In the process, he, albeit not necessarily consciously, decided to call Romney "just a paler shade" of the President. Whoooops.

The candidate, according to The Caucus,

urged voters to dismiss the conventional wisdom that Mitt Romney has an upper hand in the nominating contest. He said the party can win back the White House only by offering a “clear contrast” with President Obama. "We need contrasts,” Mr. Santorum said, “not just a paler shade of what we have.”

According to the latest poll released by Insider Advantage Thursday, Santorum is polling at 14 percent in South Carolina, behind Gingrich at 21 percent and Romney at 23 percent, so as a somewhat viable contender, he has every right to be committing verbal gaffes.

But in all/some seriousness, there's a big chunk of evangelicals in this country who have "yet to coalesce" (that phrase being essentially its own Republican candidate at this point) around a particular candidate, and some influentials in that sphere think it should be Santorum. Evangelical leaders are actually planning to meet in Texas this weekend to figure things out.

Confusion remains, however, because what even is Santorum, religiously? An article called "Is Rick Santorum A Catholic or an Evangelical? Yes."says it all.[The Caucus]