RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Sanitarium- once one of the far right's, if you will, 'more promising kooks'- would be an awful and an unrealistic choice for the Republicans, about the only thing I could say in his favor is that we might get a baffling Tolkien reference out of him ( he once made a bizarre analogy between the situation in the Middle East and the hobbits' quest to destroy the one ring in Mt. Doom) every so often..

He has touched a number of "third rails of politics" in his brief tenure in the Senate and is still radioactive as a national political figure. Naming him would be the equivalent for liberal democrats to naming Hillary Clinton as VP (which is, of course, out of the question as Clinton, Inc. will steal the nomination from the neophyte Obama, even as he watches them like a hawk, knowing they are about to steal the nomination) for conservative republicans.

Santorum would be way too controversial of a pick. Picking this guy would be ten times worse than George Bush picking Dan Quayle as his VP. The media would parse every single comment he has made in the past 20 years that would even sound remotely un-PC. He was defeated in 2006 by a 20 point margin, so the former Senator from Pennsylvania doesn't exactly bring a lot of electoral prowess to the ticket. If McCain wants a conservative on the ticket, there are surely better options.

Santorum's "pro-family" values are basically a PC way of showing his disdain for homosexuals. While there may be some in this country who believe the same things that he does, most people who know of him despise his "holier than thou" approach to policy making.

McCain has, on occasion, displayed ethical standards; the last thing he needs to do is align himself with a homophobic sleazebag. Gay sex columnist Dan Savage currently uses Santorum's last name to refer to the excess residue from a...how shall I put this?...sex act usually (but not always) involving homosexual men. Nasty, for sure, but then Santorum is a nasty guy. The LAST thing America needs now is a slimy hack like Santorum one heartbeat away from the Presidency.