Throughout the course of this week the Republican candidate has been touring the state emphasizing the importance of faith, family and freedom (ranked in this order of importance) as the guiding principles of his campaign.

To the observer, it may seem that Santorum’s battle is an uphill climb. On Monday he was greeted with a glitter bomb by Occupy Tampa protesters, his name has become a trending Google search term and he is currently ranking at 18% in the national poll, putting him in third place under Gingrich and Romney respectively.  Despite this, Santorum was eager to let it be known that he won’t be going anywhere.

The Senator opened his discussion on the importance of being active participants in protecting our own civil rights:

“What comes naturally is people who gain power and want to exercise that power and authority over the people who don’t have any… And unless you have generations of Americans who understand the threat of centralization and collection of power…the threat to you as folks who want to go out and exercise economic liberty, exercise political liberty, exercise moral liberties, religious beliefs—all of those things ultimately will be at stake.”

These concerns of an all-too powerful government became the overarching narrative of Santorum’s discussion as seen here:

And here.

There is a certain irony that is inherent in political agendas. In this case, Santorum’s claims can lead to some confusion about what his exact message is.

“I think that it’s good that he wants to concentrate more on what we need to concentrate on –to not concentrate on spending big money, but getting our money back,” said Brendan, a Junior Music Performance major. “The only thing I didn’t totally agree with was the fact that it seemed like he put a really big emphasis on religion, on Christianity. I wasn’t sure what he was saying about that. I want America to be a place where everyone has a choice to do whatever religious thing they want, as long as it doesn’t involve any religious sacrifices.”

The paradox is particularly apparent here, considering the Senator’s stance on same-sex marriage and abortion, among various other social issues.

Reactions to Santorum’s lecture were varied.

“I think he’s a principled man and I think he really does believe in what he says,” said Lawrence Dunn, a Senior Mathematics major. “It’s just that I think that what he believes is wrong. Basically, it’s ironic for him to talk about liberty and the Founding Fathers and then in the same sentence, talk about the fact that he doesn’t believe in gay marriage. He doesn’t believe that women have the right to an abortion. He doesn’t believe in legalizing drugs, despite all of the drug violence that’s going on that’s a direct result of the United States drug war. What he is trying to do is sell his principles and his rhetoric rather than actually fix things. I don’t think he wants to talk about real issues.”

To this criticism, the Senator is unapologetically straightforward.

“People say well, ‘What’s your position on the economy?’ ‘What’s your position on deficits?’ ‘What’s your position on all of these issues?’ I could go down and give you a laundry list of all of those things. But I think the most important thing for you to understand is how I look. It’s not what I believe, it’s why I believe. You want to understand how I’m going to approach every problem, now you understand…”

Not everyone was critical of Santorum’s application of principle to politics.

“[Santorum] always does a great job of relating his view points on social issues to his overall stances on everything and how that guides his beliefs in decision-making,” said John Clark, a sophomore Business Major. “Instead of ‘I believe in less spending’ or ‘I believe in a strong national defense,’ he really explains why he believes this. It’s something that you don’t see with a lot of candidates on the right or left.”

Still, Santorum may have a long way moving up in the polls and getting the support of Florida voters.

“He put a big emphasis on what he thinks we all should do,” said Brendan. “I admire that. It seems like he has a good moral compass. But, sometimes I think that leading by example, through things that are admirable to do, is more powerful than telling people what they should do.”

Florida’s primary is next Tuesday, January 31^st.

President Barack Obama at his first State of the Union address.

President Obama gave his first State of the Union address on Wednesday, January 27, and I had my concerns about what was to come. My fears proved well-founded. Dubya’s State of the Union addresses were more than mere political speeches – they were masterpieces of dark, screwball comedy, using blatant absurdity to reveal deep and disturbing truths about our national character. Anyone with a heart and a brain had to laugh, if only to keep from breaking down in tears.

Inevitably, Obama failed to live up to his predecessor. Besides a few quips, the whole affair came off as pretty much sober-minded and reasonable, hardly the laugh riot one would expect from contemporary American politics. However, I’ll do my best examine the speech in a similar manner.

How much of what was said matters?

Obviously, certain parts of the speech matter very much. When the President announces goals and policies for the coming year, we should all pay attention. What doesn’t matter, is how much Obama claims to understand the average American’s anxieties. Every politician worth his campaign contributions says they know how rough it is for the working class, and it’s all touchy-feely bullshit. We already know we need more jobs that pay better. We already know about our own cynical and distrustful attitudes towards the government. We already know Wall Street is doing better than Main Street, and that Tennessee Street is just gross. We already know our own deeply moving and allegorical stories—we’re the ones sending those letters to the White House.

Obama waxing poetic about how much he sympathizes with us isn’t a serious explanation of his new jobs bill. It’s about selling himself as President. I get worried when I see fellow progressives trust that he means every word he says and thus things are great. I voted for the guy, and I support the jobs bill. I don’t think it goes far enough, but it’s something, at least. A good idea, and it was eloquently presented. But that eloquent presentation doesn’t matter. It’s impressive, sure, but what matters is whether or not the bill actually becomes law. And so far, Obama and our Democratically controlled Congress haven’t shown much skill in that area. [Ed. Note: Gotta love conventional wisdom.]

Yes, the Republicans are obstructionist. As Obama pointed out, they’ve nearly annihilated meaningful health care reform out of spite. But Obama and the other Democrats let them do it. Instead of getting organized, making demands, and refusing to take no for answer they twiddled their thumbs playing nicety-nice bi-partisan games that, from the outset, clearly weren’t going to get anywhere. If anything proposed Wednesday night takes a similar route, none of Obama’s inspirational talk matters, which in many cases would be very problematic, possibly catastrophic. We need debt forgiveness for student loans. We need better public transportation, and the new high-speed railway connecting Tampa to Orlando is an awesome example. We need clean energy – although I have to say, the nuclear power, offshore drilling, and “clean” coal plants Obama mentioned don’t really fit into that category. But still, these are all important issues.

Also important, as the President mentioned, is the necessity of transparency in government and the protection of civil rights. What went unmentioned were some major blemishes on the President’s record concerning both issues. On the issue of transparency, there was the secret negotiating with the pharmaceutical lobby. As for civil rights, there’s the continued practice of holding terror suspects without officially charging them with a crime, a practice that can extend to American citizens like Syed Fahad Hashmi.

To be fair, Obama has kicked ass over that last guy, even if he’s not as funny, and his big ears will never be able to rival that dumb squint. By and large, 2009 was a vast improvement over the preceding eight years of crazy. Even I felt a twinge of hope in my lightless, anarchic, distrustful heart at the mention of troops coming home. And I love having a President who can fluently speak his native language. Unfortunately, if it turns out all he can do is talk, that’s not good enough. The planet is melting, and most of my friends can’t afford to see a doctor when they need to. That’s not funny.

[Ed. Note--In keeping with the promise laid out in The Yeti Blog's original charter, we are happy to supplement Matthew's serious commentary on the State of the Union with a light-hearted musical interpretation from The Gregory Brothers (schmoyoho), the folks behind the Auto-Tune the News series of web videos. We hope you enjoy.]

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.