I’m not going to go all out here for what was a very poor choice on Senator Santorum’s part, but it wasn’t quite “blithering and unbelievable idiocy.” It was a very bad way to express the basic idea John Tierney was getting across in his column yesterday. And it was a bizarre thing to say when you realize he’s in the fight of his political life right now (Senator: Don’t suggest the Social Security Number thing). Santorum came off crass and unfeeling when of course what he had in mind was the opposite–how to we get fewer people to die, some who are refusing to evacuate even now, thinking they’ve been past the worst of it could yet succumb to illness from poisonous waters, etc., etc.? How do we do this better in the future? But for the way he went about it, his opponent can only thank him. It’s the first take that will stick.