David Corn reports on the exchange:

Santorum has been in this spot before, and he easily adopted a here-we-go-again stance, and, in a somewhat condescending manner, struck back with…logic. Or what he claimed to be logic. He asked the students to justify gay marriage. When one said, "How about the idea that all men are created equal and [have] the right to happiness and liberty," Santorum asked, Are you saying that everyone should have the right to marry anyone?

The student said yes. And Santorum quickly retorted. "So anyone can marry several people?"

No, the student said.

But what if someone can only be happy if he or she was married to five people? Santorum asked her.

Others in the crowd starting jeering him. "That's not the point," one shouted.

But Santorum, who kept cutting off the students, stuck to this argument. When the students talked about equal rights, he repeatedly interrupted, "What about three men?"

That Santorum has regurgitated the polygamy point reveals, it seems to me, the weakness of his thinking on this issue. Gay people are not seeking the right to marry anyone. They are seeking the right merely to marry someone. Currently we are denied that basic civil right that every heterosexual takes completely for granted, in most states. The issue of polygamy is completely different and separate. Currently, no straight people have a right to a three-way marriage, let alone gay ones. I think there are very good social reasons for that, although it's certainly worth debating. But it's another debate. The only way Santorum's argument works is with the premise that gays denied any right to marry are denied no right at all. They are not in the same category as heterosexuals, and their relationships, and the benefits they bring, are inherently inferior, indeed morally repugnant.

That's Santorum's view. It's his view that private gay sex can and should be regulated by the government to prevent the evil of sodomy from destroying society. And sodomy, remember, means any non-procreative sex act: oral sex, masturbation and, worst of all, contraception: a deliberate flouting of natural law. If this is the position of the GOP, it is essentially turning itself into an irrelevance for the vast majority of those under 40, and hefty proportion of everyone above.

The boos are a harbinger. But they may turn to cheers, of course, in South Carolina.

David Corn taarifa juu ya kubadilishana:

Santorum imekuwa katika hii doa kabla, na kwa urahisi antog hapa-sisi-go-tena msimamo, na, kwa namna fulani condescending, akampiga nyuma na ... mantiki. Au nini alidai kuwa mantiki. Aliwaomba wanafunzi kuhalalisha ndoa za mashoga. Wakati mmoja alisema, "Je kuhusu wazo kwamba watu wote wameumbwa sawa na [na] haki ya furaha na uhuru," Santorum kuuliza, Je, wewe ni kusema kwamba kila mtu anapaswa kuwa na haki ya kuoa mtu yeyote?

mwanafunzi akasema ndiyo. Na Santorum alijibu haraka. "Kwa hiyo mtu yeyote anaweza kuolewa na watu kadhaa?"

Hakuna, mwanafunzi alisema.

Lakini nini kama kuna mtu anaweza kuwa na furaha tu kama yeye au yeye alikuwa ameolewa na watu watano? Santorum aliuliza yake.

Wengine katika lile kundi la watu kuanzia jeering yake. "Hiyo si hatua," moja walipiga kelele.

Lakini Santorum, mngoja kukata wanafunzi, kukwama kwa hoja hii. Wakati wanafunzi kuongelea kuhusu haki sawa, yeye kurudia kuingiliwa, "Je, watu kama tatu?"

Kwamba Santorum ina regurgitated hatua mitala inaonyesha, inaonekana kwangu, udhaifu wa mawazo yake juu ya suala hili. Mashoga si kutafuta haki ya kuoa mtu yeyote. Wao ni kutafuta haki tu kuoa mtu. Sasa sisi ni alikanusha kuwa haki za msingi za kiraia kwamba inachukua kila wapenzi wa jinsia tofauti kabisa kwa nafasi, katika majimbo mengi. suala la ndoa za wake wengi ni tofauti kabisa na tofauti. Hivi sasa, hakuna watu moja kwa moja kuwa na haki ya ndoa njia tatu, achilia mbali wale mashoga. Nadhani kuna sababu nzuri sana ya kijamii kwa kuwa, ingawa ni hakika thamani ya mjadala. Lakini ni mjadala mwingine. ni njia pekee ya hoja Santorum wa kazi na ahadi kuwa mashoga kunyimwa haki ya kuoana yoyote wananyimwa hakuna haki wakati wote. Wao si katika jamii sawa na heterosexuals, na mahusiano yao, na kuleta faida wao, ni urithi wa duni, kwa kweli kimaadili repugnant.

Hayo ni maoni ya Santorum. Ni maoni yake kwamba binafsi ngono mashoga wanaweza na lazima umewekwa na serikali kuzuia maovu ya kulawiti na kuharibu jamii. Na kulawiti, kumbuka, njia yoyote yasiyo ya ngono tendo la uzazi: oral sex, punyeto na, mbaya zaidi ya yote, uzazi wa mpango: wanaovunja ya makusudi ya sheria za asili. Kama hii ni nafasi ya GOP, ni kimsingi kugeuka yenyewe katika irrelevance kwa idadi kubwa ya wale walio chini ya 40, pamoja na kiasi hefty ya kila mtu hapo juu.

boos ni waathirika wakuu. Lakini wapate kurejea kwa cheers, bila shaka, katika Carolina ya Kusini.