It's the economy: It's not just about jobs now. It is about what happens next.

If you paid attention to everything every candidate said on the campaign trail this go-around, you would need a scorecard to keep track of the backtracking, redos and mistakes.

So, the first time you listen to any speech, you should almost already begin discounting what you just heard.

So, it is not surprising that Rick Santorum is now backtracking, saying that he did not mean that his campaign is not about the economy. Because, as most of the rest of the world knows, it should be.

What makes this election so critical is not just the number of people still looking for work and the rising gas prices.

What matters is that we are setting a course for the next few decades -- and one that should be based not on increasing government interference and jobs, but going back to our roots as a nation of entrepreneurs with independent spirits who want to make their own way and to keep what they earn.

We want to move away from the entitlement mentality that cripples families from all walks of life and get back to rewarding those who put in the effort to make their own way.

And that is why Santorum, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and everybody else with a hope of becoming the next president of the United States need to be thinking of -- and be ready to explain -- how they will change this course.

That is what this election is really about.

Published in Editorials on March 21, 2012 10:51 AM