This is bad news for Rick Santorum
In the wake of a 2012 Republican campaign season that did not go off as planned, the anti-LGBT religious conservative group run by noted crackpot and
birther Bob Vander Plaats is
not planning to require conservative presidential candidates to sign an official Family Leader "Marriage Vow" pledging themselves to various tenets of Bob's personal religion. The 2012 version generated considerable controversy because among the planks candidates were asked to sign off on in addition to pledges to not commit adultery and-so-on were statements that Muslims were attempting to impose sharia law in the United States, that homosexuality is a "choice" and a public health risk, and that
black American children were better off under slavery.
While presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum eagerly signed the pledge because of course they did, eventual actual nominee Mitt Romney declined, which peeved evangelicals greatly but probably helped Romney look not entirely insane. (An irritated Vander Plaats would go on to endorse Santorum, but not before making the rounds of other candidates in an apparent attempt, according to Republican insiders, to sell his endorsement for cash.
Alas, it looks like there will be no repeat of these shenanigans in 2016. The notion that American children were better off under slavery, etc., so damaged the "Marriage Vow" brand that they don't have the clout to demand candidates sign an updated version. Or, to put a better spin on it:
"One of the reasons why we are not doing it this time is that we saw it as more of a distraction" than as a benefit, Vander Plaats said. "We thought that there were other ways to do this. You know, our opponents want to pick apart things that we do. We want to make sure that the candidates are full-spectrum, pro-family conservatives."
As an alternative, The Family Leader is sponsoring a series of meetings with presidential candidates, Vander Plaats said. Included are four regional leadership forums, a family leadership summit in Ames in July, and a presidential forum in Des Moines in November.
So they won't be requiring candidates to put ink to paper because that didn't work out so well last time around, but they
will be requiring candidates to run through a gauntlet of their own sponsored events in order to gain the important and still-coveted Family Leader approval. That should provide ample entertainment, and even more chances for the groveling candidates to humiliate themselves.