Do these candidate creatures ever think about what they are saying? Even self-identified conservatives prattle on with the most ridiculous jabber about the revered institution of immigration: Rick Santorum says that immigration is the “lifeblood of this country” like the American nation is a junkie in need of a diversity fix.

He went on to recite reverent tripe about how his father and grandfather were legal immigrants, like he could do it in his sleep.

Wanna-be political leaders should instead talk about what immigration is going to do to their grandchildren when they live in an overcrowded diverse country of half a billion before mid-century.

Such was the level of immigration discourse when Wolf Blitzer MC’ed Monday’s Republican debate with a few questions supplied by Tea Party members. Although having the issue in the Presidential debates at all is a big improvement over previous campaigns.

But the one-time Pennsylvania Senator was positively bright in comparison with the Texas frontrunner.

Gov. Rick Perry seemed miffed about being booed over his taxpayer-subsidized in-state tuition for illegal aliens. He insisted that it was a states’ rights issue for him to take college slots from young citizens to give to aliens, while taxing unwilling Americans to underwrite the foreigners.

Nobody was smart enough to argue back that college graduate illegal aliens still cannot work legally in this country.

Perry had the nerve to suggest that it was somehow anti-Mexican or racist to enforce immigration laws, saying twice about the tuition break, “regardless of what the sound of their last name is.”

He also noted the special relationship of his state with its southern neighbor: “the state of Texas where Mexico has a clear and a long relationship with this state.”

Mitt Romney had the best overall answer to the whole worry about how Republicans can appeal to hispanics, saying that they come to work rather than collect welfare, so the rule-of-law party should be appealing to them.

Well, it sounds nice, even though the reality is not so hopeful, since millions of Hispanics are illegals and they are not shy about mooching welfare.

Here’s a clip of the immigration segment of the debate: