Santorum by and large stayed on message but was tripped up a bit when a student asked him if he knew that the choice of his slogan, "Fighting to make America America again," was borrowed from the "pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes."Ha. "I think it's on a web site." Moron.
"No I had nothing to do with that," Santorum said. "I didn't know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn't inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that."
The student, whose name was not immediately available, was referring to the poem "Let America Be America Again." When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, "well, I'm not too sure that's my campaign slogan, I think it's on a web site."
It was also printed on the campaign literature handed out before the speech.
One web site you can find it on is The Academy of American Poets. No doubt lines like these really speak to Santorum: "I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. / I am the red man driven from the land, / I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- / And finding only the same old stupid plan / Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak."
"Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes stands against everything Santorum stands for. A commenter on the Union Leader web site said the inclusion of the "gotcha" Hughes question and Santorum's stammering answer was evidence of biased journalism. I disagree. I think it's pretty relevant when an anti-gay, anti-union politician from a party that has no qualms against using racism to their political advantage is using a slogan lifted from a liberal gay poet. I know that Santorum has a Google problem and all, but seriously? No one on his campaign thought to Google the campaign slogan they chose? Dumb.
Via Salon.
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