Santorum to McCain: Must Be Willing to Change Views on Social Issues

Todd Aglialoro, writing at InsideCatholic, links to a Rick Santorum op/ed in the The Philadelphia Inquirer that calls on John McCain to pay more attention to social conservatives and the issues that matter to them:

Rick Santorum today called out John McCain in the Philadephia Inquirer, challenging the GOP nominee-in-waiting to apply his "vaunted pragmatism and open-mindedness" and modify his positions on issues that the social/religious conservatives, neglected "third leg" of the Republican stool (fiscal and national-security conservatives being the other two), view as important.

Santorum says McCain has persisted in being "stubborn" -- and stubbornly wrong -- over things like the Federal Marriage Amendment, funding for embryonic stem cell research, and combating global warming. On these three issues in particular, he continues, new facts have emerged that should give McCain occasion to modify his past position (not to mention an honorable public excuse for doing so). But will he?

There were a couple of lines in Santorum's piece that caught my eye. For instance:

[McCain, speaking to a group of conservatives meeting in New Orleans,] talked about two legs of the Republican stool - spending/taxes and national security. But the third leg - social issues - went unmentioned. When questioned, he failed to connect with the people who care as much about why you vote the way you do as about how you vote.

And this:

The vast majority of the people at the meeting and in the conservative movement will vote for McCain. I will. But will the people who make up the backbone of the get-out-the vote effort go to work for him?

McCain still has some convincing to do before I get on board.