Santorum Makes Case for Religion in Public Sphere TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - With two days left before the high-stakes Republican primaries in Arizona and Michigan, Rick Santorum delivered a full-throated defense of 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, Mr. Santorum declared that colleges were 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? Mr. Santorum said on the ABC News program "This Week." "That makes me throw up," he said, adding later, "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute." His rival Mitt Romney, who has struggled to persuade conservatives of his ideological commitment, made his own, subtler case to the same constituency on Sunday. He traveled to Florida to visit the site of the Daytona 500 Nascar race, long a favorite of conservative Republican voters, after having disputed what he said was the misconception that, as a former governor of Massachusetts, "I can't be conservative." "But, you know, if you look at my record in Massachusetts, I'm a solid conservative - a committed conservative with the kind of principles I think America needs," Mr. Romney said on Fox News Sunday, ticking off his record of cutting taxes, enforcing illegal immigration laws and opposing same-sex marriage. The vigorous last-minute overtures underscored how much the focus of the contest had swung from economic issues to social concerns, even in states that have suffered during the financial crisis as much as Michigan and Arizona have. Polls shows the candidates running roughly even in Michigan, as well as nationally, and the question for both of them is how Mr. 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. The two leading Republicans are trading increasingly caustic and personal attacks as they challenge the depth of the other's conservatism. Mr. Romney has portrayed Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, as a creature of Washington who was willing to compromise his beliefs to vote for the federal No Child Left Behind law and to back the 2004 re-election of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a supporter of abortion rights. Mr. Santorum has accused Mr. Romney of lacking an ideological backbone, pointing to his previous support of abortion rights and to the heath care plan he enacted in Massachusetts. "I don't understand what team he's on," Mr. Santorum said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" on Sunday. It's not the same team that I'm on. For Mr. Romney, the stakes are especially high on Tuesday. A loss in Michigan would represent a searing setback in his home state and would reinforce the sense that the party's rank and file is unwilling to come together behind him. For Mr. Santorum, a defeat could threaten to sap the energy that he has built with victories over Mr. Romney in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. In a sign of his potential staying power, he will get Secret Service protection, starting within the next few days, On a day when both candidates vied for the affections of conservative voters, it was Mr. Santorum's language that stood out. Appearing on "This Week," Mr. Santorum was asked about several of his recent comments, including why he derided President Obama - whom he called a "snob" - for encouraging all Americans to attend college. "There are lot of people in this country that have no desire or no aspiration to go to college, because they have a different set of skills and desires and dreams," Mr. Santorum said. Mr. Santorum 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. In that interview, Mr. Santorum defended his criticism of Kennedy's famous speech about separation of church and state. Kennedy, then a presidential candidate, gave the speech to quiet claims that he would answer to the Vatican because he was a Roman Catholic. Mr. Santorum is also a Catholic. Reporting was contributed by Viv Bernstein and Ashley Parker from Daytona Beach, Fla.; Jim Rutenberg from New York; and Katharine Q. Seelye from Marquette, Mich.