Santorum vs. JFK on Separation of Church and State

GOP presidential primary hopeful Rick Santorum has often stated that John F Kennedy's September 1960 speech on the separation of church and state in the U.S. was harmful.  Here he is, in one of his many speeches on the issue given at parochial colleges or schools:


This past week, he stated that watching and listening to JFK's speech, he wanted to throw up. He was questioned about that this weekend by George Stephanoupulous:

To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?” Santorum said.


“That makes me throw up and it should make every American who is seen from the president, someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you, not that you can’t come to the public square and argue against it, but now we’re going to turn around and say we’re going to impose our values from the government on people of faith, which of course is the next logical step when people of faith, at least according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square,” he said.

Here he is on ABC This Week:


Here is Kennedy's speech, made when he was running for president:


Santorum seems to be managing to galvanize the same GOP base that Palin was able to tap into in 2008.  He does look rather dense here, as he totally mischaracterized what Kennedy said and meant.