Santorum was asked about several of his recent comments

With two days left before the closely contested Republican primaries in Arizona and Michigan, Rick Santorum delivered a full-throated defense of christian louboutin religion in public life on Sunday, appealing to the social conservatives who have revived his presidential campaign.

In an escalation of the sometimes fiery language that he has used throughout the race, Santorum declared that colleges are no longer a "neutral setting" for people of faith and described how he had become sickened after reading John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech calling for the rigid separation of religion and politics.

"What kind of country do we live in that says only people of nonfaith can come into the public square and make their case?" Santorum said on the ABC News program "This Week." "That makes me throw up."

Kennedy, then a presidential candidate, gave the speech to quiet claims that he would answer to the Vatican because he was a Roman Catholic. Santorum is also a Catholic.

His rival Mitt Romney, who has struggled to convince conservatives of his ideological commitment, made his own, subtler case to the same constituency on Sunday. He traveled to Florida to attend the Daytona 500 NASCAR race (which was delayed by rain), long a favorite of conservative Republican voters, after having earlier disputed what he said was the misconception that, as a former governor of Massachusetts, "I can't be conservative."

But the crowd booed Romney, who occasionally struck a discordant note, as when he approached a group of fans wearing plastic ponchos. "I like those fancy raincoats you bought," he said. "Really sprung for the big bucks."

The last-minute overtures underscored Christian Louboutin Slingback how much the focus of the contest had swung from economic issues to social concerns.

Polls show the candidates running roughly even, and the question for both of them is how Santorum's provocative and assertive outreach to the religious right will resonate with voters, both in the contests this week and in the dozen on "Super Tuesday" on March 6.

For Romney, the stakes are especially high on Tuesday: a loss in Michigan would represent a searing setback in his home state and reinforce the sense that the party's rank and file is unwilling to come together behind him.

For Santorum, a defeat could threaten to sap the energy that he has built with victories over Romney in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

On a day when both candidates vied for the affections of conservative voters, it was Santorum's language that stood out.

Appearing on "This Week" from Marquette, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Santorum was asked about several of his recent comments, including why he had derided President Obama - whom he called a "snob" - for encouraging all Americans to attend college.

He said many people simply have no Christian Louboutin Stretch Platform OTK Boot aspiration for university, and he also suggested that social conservatives are under assault on college campuses. "We have some real problems at our college campuses with political correctness," he said.