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GOLDEN, Colo. -- Rick Santorum is fighting back after a barrage of attacks from rival Mitt Romney ahead of three primary season contests that could give the former Pennsylvania senator his best day on the campaign trail since winning the Iowa caucus.
"Gov. Romney, on that vitally important issue of ObamaCare, is in fact the weakest candidate that we could put up," Santorum told reporters after a speech here at the Colorado School of Mines. "Campaigns are about ideas, and on the ideas that matter most to the American people right now, he's on the wrong side."
Santorum traveled to Colorado after a morning speech where he delivered a blistering critique of the health care law Romney signed as governor of Massachusetts. A policy, Santorum says, that forced individuals to become dependent on government and was the basis for the law President Obama signed in 2010.
For a candidate who has not finished better than third since winning Iowa, Santorum has received an unusually high amount of attention from the frontrunner. Opposition emails from the Romney camp and conference calls with surrogates have bashed Santorum for his record on earmarks and his 2008 endorsement of his now rival.
It is no coincidence that the attacks come just one day before the Colorado and Minnesota caucuses and Missouri primary -- all states where Santorum is showing strength and may even have a chance to win.
He'll watch returns Tuesday night in Missouri, whose non-binding contest will not have Newt Gingrich on the ballot, and where campaign advisers say he'll show his strength against Romney in a field without Gingrich.
"Our hope is that conservatives who are stepping back and looking at the race and making the same calculation that I've just made that a Romney nomination would not be in the best interest of us winning the general election and we need to have a conservative alternative," he said.
"My feeling is that Speaker Gingrich sort of had his chance in the arena and came up short in Florida and Nevada and now it's our turn hopefully to get a one-on-one in Missouri, which we have."
Monday's address on health care was the second time in as many weeks that the Santorum camp has billed a campaign stop as a major health care speech. The former Massachusetts governor's support of a health care bill containing a mandate has been a term the GOP presidential hopeful brings out almost daily on the campaign trail. It's a message that has not been received well since the Hawkeye State, but Romney attacks show neighboring states like Minnesota may be tuning in.
But Santorum dismissed any criticisms that his attacks could do nothing more than bring down the eventual nominee.
"Let me assure you that the president will do a much better job and a much, much, much more caustic job of doing that than I will, which is just basically talking about his record and that's all I talk about and I suspect the president will embellish that quite a bit more than I have," said Santorum.
But he did not rule out sharing a ticket with a man he has fiercely criticized throughout his campaign. "I'm not going to run as a third party, but I will do whatever I can to make sure Barack Obama is not the next president of the United States," he said.
Update at 11:24 p.m. ET
From Ryan Williams, press secretary for presidential candidate Mitt Romney:
“Rick Santorum has had a history in this campaign of making false statements about Mitt Romney’s record – this is just one more example. Mitt Romney will repeal Obamacare. Rick Santorum is hoping to get some momentum behind his campaign, but has unfortunately resorted to false and negative attacks."
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Let's see--Santorum doesn't want women (or men) to have access to birth control, thinks poor people should just skip buying a iPad that month to afford their medicine, and takes government assistance for his family's health problems, but doesn't want anyone else to have any. What's there not to like? {sarcasm}
Santorum has voted for every conception program while in Congress. He sees a problem with it, but doesn't expect YOU to hold to his personal standards.
Health IS more important than an iPad - can't use it if you don't get your medicine and die right?
I really wish the 'iPad' comment had gotten more media attention. It truly shows his true colors. I'll be honest, Romney's comment about 'I don't care about the poor' was taken a bit out of context but Santorum's comment to the mother of the little boy was callous and shows he really believes that healthcare is only for the rich.
I had originally had some respect for him. Although I don't agree with his stance on most things I thought he at least was true to his 'Christian' beliefs. Well, now that I know exactly what those beliefs don't include the sick, I have absolutely no respect for him.
This guy must be having delusions of grandeur or something. There is virtually no way he can win, and at this point he needs to think smart and cut his losses. There is a fine line between persevering and wasting time and he seems to have lost sight of it
As a side, I also agree with many on here that think he really showed his true colors when he made the iPad comment. (which basically amounted to, if you can afford an iPad you should be cool with high health premiums.)
From what I read he had a point. Something like people want to buy things they enjoy and let the government pay for their health care, when their healthcare should be their first priority before the iPad,
Any Financial advisor would tell you what on earth are you buying an iPad and paying for any associated monthly services for when you know you have a medical problem that requires medicine that you must pay for.
InSantorum... all I can say is.... Nah nah nah.... nah nah... nah.. hey hey hey GOODBYE.. and "GOOD RIDDANCE". Of all the GOP contenders, this is the one that is the most self centered, bigoted, anti human rights and moronic clowns ever.
However, I sure wouldn't mind if the GOP does give him the nomination. If they do, that would be a landslide victory for Obama.
DB Akron-
I agree with the principal point. People shouldn't buy nice stuff in lieu of healthcare or other obligations.
But what Santorums said was different. His solution to soaring healthcare costs basically amounted to telling people to not buy stuff. That solves nothing.
Actually what I got was that the drug companies are entitled to all the profits they can squeeze out of the public. I highly doubt anybody who needs life-saving meds (especially for their child) goes into a month saying "hmmm, well if I don't buy little Jimmy's meds this month I can buy that iPad"
While you might agree with some of his remarks or points it was simply callous. I wonder exactly how he would feel were he in the same place. But because he has money and good healthcare his daughter will never have to worry.
I really can't think of any time in my 60 years on this earth that I have heard a more elitist remark from a political candidate.
I've seen your posts and I know you are smarter then this. Buying $200 medicine every month is not the same thing as buying a $900 iPad one time. Within 5 months the medicine would exceed the price of an iPad. How often do you think people buy iPads? Every 6 months?
Maybe you didn't watch the video of the incident, but it was Santorum that brought up a $900 iPad out of nowhere to justify his argument. I highly doubt people paying $200 a month out of their pocket for medication can afford to buy a $900 iPad.
The crazy point about the iPad was that he pulled that out of nowhere. The question was about healthcare. I never understood the correlation. Why does he assume that the folks, all over America, who are struggling with the rising cost of staying alive, are buying iPads instead of medicine. Did I miss something.
Not quite as bad as his statement in Iowa, telling a mostly-white audience he doesn’t want to “make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” And that question was about foreign money. Dude has serious issues.
All- this woman also talked about children in the ward at the hospital where her son was and the children there -parents were bereft beacause they could not afford the drugs needed to keep their children alive and he never answered that
Big question - I worked for a pharmaceutical company for twenty years - how many ads are we barraged with on TV - every magazine I pick up - why can't they lower their costs and not pay for all this advertising BS ?
I know it's deductible on their Income Taxes - how about not making it deductible
Barbara:
Part D and protectionism are the golden children of the Pharmaceutical companies. Its hard to estimate how much corporate welfare is being given to the American Pharmaceutical companies. Politicians continue to restrict domestic and institutional buying choices with a host of arguments including quality control. The truth is that our hard earned health care programs are being raided and destroyed by this big pharmaceutical interests. Competition will help this problem. For example, many of the large pharmaceutical companies are located all of the world in places such as India. A medicine like Z Pack would sell for 8.00 american at any Pharmacy over the counter. In America, the same Z Pack is 125.00 over the counter. So, under part D, the government is fleeced for 117.00 over market price. We should come down hard on any Senators who put these controls in place, and harder yet on those who oppose pharma reform by opening Individual and Institutional buying on a world wide scale. The government can still assure quality without destroying competition.
"Campaigns are about ideas, and on the ideas that matter most to the American people right now" ... I'm not sure that the majority of the American people share Santorum's "idea" of a religious theocracy where the constitution is replaced by the bible.
TOG,
The part I like was at the end when he doesn't rule out a VP spot. So, you trash the guy who will probably get the nod, and then say "Please let me be VP"? Odd, odd man.
And with that, I am off to bed to read. Good night!
You have to be assuming because he is Catholic that he wants this, bad assumption, real bad assumption - his voting record doesn't say so.
no, he's on record for wanting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. No assumption there, he wants to implement ideas from the bible into the constitution.
Nope, DB, not because he's Catholic. The pope's catholic and anyone who doesn't want to hear someone elses religious belief can just ignore him. But Santorum SAYS that as president he will do this and that religious crap, for esample, He SAYS he'll seek an anti- gay marriage amendment nationally because blah blah blah (more religious crap), and he'll seek an amendment to call fertilized eggs people because blah blah blah. If you want to live in a theocracy, just go to Iran, it's the exact same thing, just a few different words and you'll forget about that soon and love it.
iam noone - Where in the Bible does it talk about homosexuality - please anyone who can quote this?
I do know Hannibal had his Persian boy, I do know a very Catholic Society of Italian men in the fifteenth century had their "friends" and was accepted by their families as long as they produced an heir - I do know Michaelangelo was gay and worked on the Sistine Chapel one of his greatest works, I do know that we are blessed with the arts, music, theatre, dance and paintings by some of the best homosexual men on the face of this earth and without them what would we have had - nothing
Iam noone, excellent point.
It is funny how so called "christians" never see these attempts to control the entire population based on "their" beliefs as the same as Iran. Somehow in their heads, just becasue they are "Christian" it is OK.
My personal example of why this guy should not even run for dog catcher. I just received a Robo-Call on my home phone from Michelle Malkin asking me to support Rick Santorum in tomorrow's Colorado Caucus. I live in St. Louis, Missouri.
That would be someone on his staff erroring. we get stuff from democrats, including robo calls, and my wife hasn't been registered democrat in over 4 years and I never was registered Democrat - being registered independent in Ohio is worthless - so I am registered Republican.
I agree DB, I'm sure it was just a staff mistake. But it gave me the opportunity to use this forum to say what a goof I think Santorum is.
Just keepin you honest about it. BTW that was funny. We had some lady put the wrong phone number in some web site requesting insurance quotes. What a pain with all the agents calling at all hours.
Not to be off-topic but my number is one digit away from H&R Block. I hate answering it from Jan 1 - tax day
jim H,
LOL
You must be on somebody's list....
Everyone who lives here is a democrat - always have been. The wife got a call a couple of months ago addressing her as a "signicant conservative donor". I almost kicked her out of the house before she convinced me it must have been some kind of mistake. I still checked the bank account.
Okay, Jim... That's funny... Thanks for the chuckle tonight...
If you are a registered independent, you get calls from both parties.
Time for someone to put this cat out for the night and then some.
All the ideas put forth by these generic figures sound the same. To all the potential voters in Minnesota, Colorado, Maine, Arizona and Michigan. Remember this: If you vote for TEA party members you will be voting for a concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people and the concentration of power in stricter, less compassionate hands. You would be voting for those who would not spread around the tax pain to others protecting the top one percent.(1%) President Obama has proven his leadership abilities with a smaller government, 3 million private sector jobs, a Health Care plan, Wall Street reform, a vibrant auto industry, and president Obama's leadership had a hand in the taking out of Osama Bin Ladin, Atiyah abd al-Rahman, Anwar al-Awlaki(American Militant), and others(Moammar Khaddafy), while fighting off numerous Troubling Economic Antagonist(TEA) party efforts to run other than jobs producing legislation through Congress! The president has or will ended the two unfunded Iraq and Afghan wars.
well said, Rudy-- We are on the edge of a precipice that could see the election of more Tea Party politicians like Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin who proceeded to crush the state's unions despite not having campaigned on the issue. Our workers need to be protected from Tea Party candidates who have been ruthlessly stripping the unions of their power and passing right to work laws in the states they run in. Walker has been recalled but can still raise the millions to win the recall election because of Citizens United.
Why isn't anyone 'fact checking' Santorum? I've heard some of his stump speeches, and he lies repeatedly! Yet, no one is calling him out! What the hell happened to true journalism, and factual reporting?
because he really hasn't been a serious candidate before. Not sure if he is yet, but if he manages that, he'll get a lot more scrutiny..which is the reason he's still in the running still, he's getting a pretty free pass ...so far.
Can you believe this? Newsmax accidentally prints Romney Nevada win article 2 days early! WTF? How obvious does it have to get? http://www.examiner.com/conspiracy-in-denver/newsmax-accidentally-prints-romney-nevada-win-article-2-days-early
Go for it Rick! Don't let anyone tell you that you're too dumb or too bigoted to win the GOP nomination.....you're just the kind of privileged straight white male Christian they're looking for!
skrekk - How do you know he's straight?
BarbaraAdamsJackson
Exactly! I've always had a bad feeling about him,
There's a long history of over zealous crusaders who end up getting caught doing the very things they rail so loudly against! Hypocrites generally make a lot of noise,,,, Methinks he doth protest too much!
"where campaign advisers say he'll show his strength against Romney in a field without Gingrich."
really?? umh when you take out 1 of the front runners im sure you will APPEAR to do better...ill laugh my ares off if Ron Paul runs second
The only thing Santitorium is good at is crying, whining, and planting placentas in his backyard. Hey Rick, go home sit down and shut up....nobody cares what you think. You make Sarah Palin seem bright!
Forget about Rick santorum's "Ideas". However one thing that strikes me correct in his argument.
Why Romney doesnot talk about his accomplishments as governor of MA? Why Mitt's argument is always about "My opponents are weak and unelectable." but never about "I am DESERVING candidate"