Who Is Rick Santorum?

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In my last post, I gave a brief bio for Mitt Romney, who is currently the frontrunner in the race for the GOP nomination. The candidate most view as the second runner-up is Rick Santorum.

Santorum has spent a large portion of his career in politics. He served as a Senator for Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2007. Before that (from 1991 to 1995), he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also spent some of his career working as an attorney in Pittsburgh.

While he was born in Virginia, Santorum grew up mostly in Pennsylvania, where he also earned his college degrees. He has an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and a J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law.

Santorum is often thought of as an extremely conservative candidate. His campaign highlights values like family, work and freedom of religion. In 2003, Santorum and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) sponsored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.

One of Santorum’s major career highlights is known as the Santorum Amendment. If the amendment had passed in 2001, it would have added a provision to the No Child Left Behind bill that would allow those with teaching jobs in public schools to teach both the theories of evolution and intelligent design. However, after much debate, the amendment was removed from the bill.

Then, in 2005, Santorum appeared to reverse his opinion on the matter. In an interview with National Public Radio, Santorum stated that he believes intelligent design should not be taught in public schools.

Regardless of some of the controversial events and statements in Santorum’s past, many Republicans are attracted to his strong values and his apparent gusto to beat President Obama in the general election. There are still several primaries left, so the GOP nomination is not yet set in stone, and all the candidates are continuing to campaign in states across the country.

Who is Mitt Romney?

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Things are heating up in the GOP primaries. Whith the assumed rival of President Obama, as he runs for reelection, republican candidates are competing for the support of the party.

While there are still plenty of primary elections ahead of us, as of now, the supposed pick is Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney served as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. Romney’s father, George Romney, also served as the governor. Romney grew up in Michigan, and has five children with his wife, Ann Romney.

Romney earned an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University and a joint JD and MBA from Harvard University, one of the top MBA programs. He went on to work as the CEO of Bain & Company and later founded Bain Capital, where he is credited with helping the company achieve major financial success. Despite recent controversy about the success of these corporations, it has been shown that Romney played a positive role in boosting the companies’ bottom line.

In 1994, Romney ran for the senate in Massachusetts, but lost to Ted Kennedy. Romney ran for the Republican nominee during the 2008 presidential election, but was beat by John McCain.

Perhaps one of Romney’s greatest achievements is his role as the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002. As is well known, the Salt Lake City Olympics were having financial problems. In fact, there was talk of the games being moved to another location, after it became known that the event was $379 million short of what it needed to be successful. However, Romney stepped in, made leadership changes, changed the budget and fundraising goals, and in essence, saved the event.

Many Republicans believe that Mitt Romney has what it takes to beat President Obama in a presidential campaign. And, better yet, they believe he has what it takes to help the country’s struggling economy and troubling job loss numbers.

The Ridiculousness of Michelle Obama’s Candy Bar Ban

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If you haven’t heard about all of this yet, let me bring you up to speed. Michelle Obama (you know, Barack’s ball and chain) recently passed a bill banning the sale of king sized candy bars in America. The theory is that stopping the production of king sized candy bars will somehow drop the obesity rate in the states. Yes Mrs. Obama – it was the candy bars that got us all fat. Good going there. I am not sure why I am so appalled by all of this, but I really just need a chance to vent about it. You’re the lucky one chosen to listen (or read in this case). Enjoy…

Why This Ban Is Ridiculous

There are so many issues to deal with in the world – hunger, pollution, war, poverty, the economy, the environment, overpopulation…and candy bars. It seems like a blatant waste of time. I wouldn’t mind if the first lady did something like a 5K run for the terror of Take 5 or a PSA about the dangers of Ding Dongs, but she has devoted a significant amount of time to this fluff of a campaign that just proves why our economy is so f*cked up at the moment. All of this time could have been used to better the lives of others, but instead it was used to fight an issue that isn’t even the root of the problem. The illogicalness of it all is infuriating.

Beyond the wasted time, I also think this is a wasted effort as a whole. If someone wants the equivalent of a king sized candy bar, he or she is going to buy two regular candy bars to feed the hunger. That is actually more food than the king sized bar, so Michelle’s little plan could actually make us all fatter in the end. People who have self-control don’t gravitate towards king sized candy bars, and they never will. It is only those who want to stuff their faces with nougat-y wonder. Those people are going to eat what they want to eat no matter what.

What We Should Do about It

There are a few different steps we can take at this point to “stick it to the man,” or tyrannical wo-man in this case. They will seem a little weird at first, but just bear with me, okay?

Plan #1: Would you like to buy a sundial…?
First, we could buy out all of the king sized candy bars and store them to sell in the black market after the ban is enforced. I can see it now – refrigerated trench coats stuffed with oversized Snickers…kids hiding chocolate under their pillows like it’s marijuana…teens talking about how they got busted for having a Twix fix behind the dumpster at Walmart…the horror! The horror!

Plan #2: What a lovely work of art…
Our second option is to buy a bunch of regular sized candy bars and melt them all down into a giant sculpture of Michelle Obama. Then we can label it as the “queen” sized candy bar and scarf it down to release our frustration. That may get a little messy though, so let’s sleep on this idea for a little bit. Wouldn’t want to get the local police officer princes in a tiff.

Plan #3: Your lawn could use some work…
Our third option is to build a giant candy bar launcher that would allow us to land a series of candy bars on the White House lawn until we spelled out the words “BITE ME” in big letters. The chocolate would melt into the grass, leave big dookie-looking stains, and permanently point out the stupidity of this rule. Muhahahaha…

Okay okay, this is all a bit absurd. I just figured we could fight fire with fire, or in this case, stupid with stupid-er. I don’t know what to do really. Just grin and bear it like we do everything else. Hopefully this will all pass, and we can get back to the important issues that actually matter around here. That may be a farfetched dream, but it is one that I am definitely holding onto.

What do you say? Are ya with me? Let’s fight the candy bar crusade together! Get ready White House. We’ve got hungry blog readers ready for the attack!