@JLeslie You are making a lot of unwarranted assumptions about Santorum. He may be from the North, but he is very, very conservative. He is also a staunch Catholic, and his views follow all the Catholic anti-women views in lockstep. He home schooled his kids (and cheated in getting funding for that, too). He does not trust government and wants to make it as small as he can.
He believes women should stay home to take care of kids. They have no business holding jobs other than taking care of children. He is very bad. He was the worst Senator my state ever had. You should not be trying to apologize for him without knowing a lot more.
This man would be a disaster as a President. No one should vote for him in an effort to give Obama a weaker opponent. If he were, through some disaster, to end up as President, our country will be set back another fifteen years (to add to the years the Shrub set us back).
The “base” of a party are those folks who are rabid partisans. They can be counted on to turn out, no matter what. The Republican Religious Right is the base because these folks vote and work for candidates no matter what. They are not soft supporters who might vote for you, but won’t do anything else for you. If they like the candidate, they work hard. That’s why you can’t alienate them. Without them, you have no workers. That’s how politics work. It’s no different for dems. The party workers are the committed progressives.