“Hey, how’s your guy Santorum doing?”

“He’s not my guy.”

“You’re a social conservative aren’t you?

“Yes.”

“He’s against contraception.”

“So?  When have I ever mentioned contraception?  Abortion, yes, but I’ve never said anything about contraception, I don’t care.”

This guy isn’t a far left dailykos type lib, just center left and maybe closer to the center as I perceive it.  So what’s at work here?  We’ve had similar discussions before.  He brings up an issue in the news as if I care about it, but the issue is really created by the Democrat party and the Republicans get asked about it even though none of us ever brought it up in the first place.  Maybe Santorum has, I don’t know, but if he did it’s his issue and not every other Republican in the Universe.  That’s really the crux of the strategy.  The Democrat party responds to a point that isn’t made and the liberal media asks every Republican to comment as if it’s in the party platform.

If you ask a Democrat party member who talks about it the most, in this case contraception, they’ll respond the Republicans are talking about it.  The truth is the Republicans are the ones getting asked about it.  Unfortunately, most don’t explain it the way I just explained it, and it’s probably hard to do so within the constraints of a media interview.  A few will hand it back by pointing out it’s a waste of time asking stupid questions when we have huge unemployment, massive deficits, out of control gas prices, and other miseries foisted upon the populace by an inept president.  That’s probably the best way to handle the question in a superficial medium like television.  It gets the point across.