From The Raw Story:

Rick Santorum wished Tuesday morning that he could rescind his statement of wanting to “throw up” after hearing former President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on the separation of church and state.

Appearing on the Laura Ingraham Show, the GOP presidential candidate expressed some regret for his comments this past weekend before continuing his attack on President Obama.

“I wish I had that particular line back,” Santorum said. “I think we need to have a free exercise of religion in this country and it’s important for those First Amendment freedoms to be alive and well in America and I think they are threatened here in America as we’ve seen by President Obama, not by Rick Santorum.”

Think about it for a second and you’ll realize why Santorum regrets using “that particular line” to describe his reaction to the 51-year-old speech in which John F. Kennedy clarified his belief in an America where “the separation of church and state is absolute.”

Santorum knows he can get away with pretending there is no distinction to be made between freedom of religion and governmental policy that reflects preference for a particular religion, because most of the yahoos who support him are unaware that the Founding Fathers were adamant believers in church/state separation.

What Santorum can’t get away with is wanting to “throw up,” as he so elegantly phrased it, at the memory of JFK’s speech. He’ll never renounce his fanaticism, but he’d love to take back his scornful dismissal of the first Catholic president, because he knows there exists among many working-class Americans not only a residue of fascination with the Kennedy years, but also nostalgia for a time when crooked-faced, crooked-minded zealots were the exception rather than the rule in presidential races, even among Republicans.

Don’t get me wrong — Kennedy is no hero of mine, and nostalgia always masks the unpleasant side of the era it invokes. I’m simply saying that many people associate JFK with an America that aspired to progress and enlightenment — the things Santorum despises — and that these people aren’t likely to forgive Santorum’s comments should he manage to win the nomination.