Traps

I've heard some chitter chatter on the Internet about how the Obama campaign has "set a trap" on contraception for Republicans and, specifically, Rick Santorum should he be the nominee.   Well, maybe.   But it could be that Obama is trapping himself.   Consider:   the only way to attack Santorum on contraception would be to make the argument that his religion, Catholicism, is somehow weird or out of the mainstream.   By itself that may harm Obama more than it harms Santorum, particularly in northern Midwest states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania with high concentrations of Catholics.   (The same may or may not be true for states like Florida and New Mexico, with high concentrations of Hispanic Catholics.).  

But doesn't it also bring back into play the weirdness of Obama's own religion?   If Obama gets to comment on Santorum's religious beliefs and bring them into play (which he certainly has through the Obamacare contraception mandate), isn't it obvious that Jeremiah Wright comes back into play as an issue?   McCain never used the issue in 2008, but wouldn't there be a compelling case that Catholicism's ideas about contraception are not nearly as bizarre as Wright's ideas:

• September 2001: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”
• September 2001: “We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.”
• September 2001: “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard. America is chickens coming home to roost.”
• April 2003: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America. No! No No! God damn America … for killing innocent people. God damn America for threatening citizens as less than humans. God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme.”
•  “Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college. … Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.”
•  "You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you."
•  “We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional killers. … We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. … We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. … We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means. And … And … And! God! Has got! To be sick! Of this shit!”