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ATLANTA —Predicting an extended nominating fight, Mitt Romney said Wednesday he didn't expect the GOP primary season to result in a "coronation," all while downplaying a sweep of three nominating contests last night by Rick Santorum.
Romney said he still expected to become the Republican Party's nominee against President Obama this fall, but seemed to brace for a longer-than-expected path to the nomination.
“We think we can beat Sen. Santorum where we compete head-to-head in an aggressive way, and we obviously didn’t do that in Colorado or Minnesota to the extent that the other campaign did," Romney said on an airport Tarmac here in Georgia. "There will certainly be places where he wins, and there will be places where I win. There’s no such thing as coronations in presidential politics. It’s meant to be a long process. It’s not easy to get the nomination, it’s not easy to be elected president and this is a testing ... a testing approach. And so far we’re doing pretty well.”
Last night's contests — in which no delegates were awarded, Romney's campaign was quick to point out — did not, however, go so well for Romney. He suffered double digit defeats in Minnesota, where he won four years ago, and in Missouri, where Newt Gingrich did not appear on the ballot. In Colorado, a state where Romney competed actively and where the campaign seemed confident of a win, he lost by five points to Santorum.
Asked today about lessons learned in the defeat, Romney came out swinging, lumping Santorum together with Gingrich as a creature of Washington, and blaming both men for fostering a spending and earmark culture that ultimately hurt the Republican party, and spawned the Tea Party movement. The former Massachusetts governor said he did not respond to attacks while campaigning in Nevada, but that going forward he would make differences between himself and his opponents "very clear."
"Under Newt Gingrich earmarks doubled. Rick Santorum was a major earmarker and continues to defend earmarks. Under Rick Santorum he voted to raise the debt ceiling I believe five different times to a tune of about an addition $3.5 trillion," Romney said. "I believe that while Sen. Santorum was serving in congress and the Senate, government spending increased by some 80%. Republicans spent too much money, borrowed too much money, earmarked too much, and Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have to be held accountable."
Romney followed up with a spending-based attack on Santorum at a rally later on: "During Sen. Santorum's time in Washington, government grew 80 percent. And he voted to raise the debt ceiling five times."
Perhaps looking to reclaim his economy-oriented message, Romney turned his attack on Santorum and Gingrich into an attack on borrowing and spending more broadly, and hammered his point home.
"When Republicans act like Democrats, they lose. And in Newt Gingrich’s case he had to resign. In Rick Santorum’s case, he lost by the biggest margin of any Senate incumbent since 1980. Again, borrowing, spending, and earmarking is not a good combination if you’re a Republican and not a good combination, in my view, for America," Romney said.
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Rick Santorum has no values. Do some research on him. Even his own local newspaper called him a black belt in hypocrisy. Santorum took the most money from lobbyist. His illegal charity received $1 million in donations and $524,000 went to his aide, lobbyist and fundraisers..makes you go hmmm. Santorum worked with Walmark to restrict raising minimum wage and overtime. Santorum worked with large Pharmaceutical companies on Medicare Part D which is costing the Federal Government billions of dollars while they are profiting.Santorum'ss PAC that he set up to represent other candidates only had 18% of the money go toward other candidates campaigns, the rest went to expenses in his home town. This was his own personal expense acount. Santorum voted 8 times to raise the debt ceiling increasing the debt to $4.7 trillion.Santorum worked with Jack Abramoff, lobbyist who went to prison, to protect the Tan family. This is probably the most unjust is Santorum’s involment with Jack Abramoff in protecting the Tan family and their staggering array of human rights abuses on the Commwealth of Morthern Marianas Islands. The Tan family ran sweatshops on the islands and Santorum provided legislative cover for the truly rancid sweatshops, their human rights violations and almost fathomless moral quagmire of forced prostitution and abortions.
plus you know the old saying... if you cant win your state.... well Santorum cant even win his state (a swing state mind you)
I actually think this is great news for the country. these days only very conservative or very liberal candidates get through their convention. We then have a choice between two extremes. With Santorum and Gingrich staying in the race for the long haul Romney will be able to emerge by maintaining the more moderate gop voters and the country will then have a right of center candidate to elect in the fall. The country is just right of center so why shouldnt our president be?
I disagree, liberals are about 65-70% of the population. But because the way districts are layed out, its doesnt go by population, which I think is BS. Why some rural area has as much politcal pull as a city with 10 times the population seems ridiculous to me. Its like a scam set up to help the minority be equal.
Trouble is, the people in this country don't know a good thing when it stares them in the face. The country is true and good. The people have been decaying for years. I am 66 years old, I grew up in San Leandro, CA. A small industrial Giant. Used to be, that is. Ever since around 1985 or so the town has declined. It is directly because of the influx of black and Hispanics coming in from who knows where. Mostly Oakland, CA. These two ethnic groups have destroyed the city. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. You can't paint a pretty picture. Crime has gone way up. Older people who live there are afraid. I'm glad I don't live there anymore because I would probably get myself into a lot of trouble. I despise those IDIOTS. WE need someone in the presidency who is awake and not one of the problems. Barry Soetoro Hussein, The Little Muslim PUNK is not the guy. He has nothing but an EVIL way about him. He is a ZERO.
Concerned AMERICAN, Larry Velasco Barry doesn't give a damn about you.
The mormon wants to give the catholic as much exposure as possible so he can nominate him as his vp. Big Woo!
Rick Santorum has no values. Do some research on him. Even his own local newspaper called him a black belt in hypocrisy. Santorum took the most money from lobbyist.
His illegal charity received $1 million in donations and $524,000 went to his aide, lobbyist and fundraisers..makes you go hmmm. Watch the youtube video "Rick Santorum Who is He LearJet" - He has skeletons in the closet that will scare you.
If you want to know if Santorum has values or not watch this, youtube video, "Rick Santorum Who is He Learjet."
These results demonstrate what the conservatives are saying. They overwhelmingly will support a ticket that has the chance to go all the way to the White House but not before their views are guaranteed a strong voice in government policies.
Rick did not want to attack anyone because he knows there is a closet full of skeletons that really how who he is. Don't be afraid to do your homework. Noone will know but you so spend a little time to research each candidate and find out who has had a corrupt politican career, been immoral and unfaithful and who has tried to be a successful in all that he does.
We all know about Newt, his unfaithfulness and cheating go back to 1962. His corruption is undeniable, fraud, tax evasion, investigated by the FBI.
But what do you know about Santorum.
K Street scandal and lobbyist, Jack Abramoff goes to prision.
Probably the most unjust is Santorum’s involment with Jack Abramoff in protecting the Tan family and their staggering array of human rights abuses on the Commwealth of Morthern Marianas Islands. The Tan family ran sweatshops on the islands and Santorum provided legislative cover for the truly rancid sweatshops, their human rights violations and almost fathomless moral quagmire of forced prostitution and abortions.
Santorum was named among the top 3 most corrupt senators in 2005-2006 by a Washington watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The Pittsburg Gazzette (in his own backyard) said he had a black belt in hypocrisy.
He voted 8 times to raise the debt ceiling, increasing the debt by $4.7 trillion dollars. He sponsored a $50 million dollar bill to build an indoor rain forest.
In 2006, Santorum faced difficulties in his quest for a third term. Corruption allegations dogged him everywhere he went. He trailed his Democrat opponent by double digits for most of the campaign. To try to siphon votes away from Santorum’s opponent, many of his supporters helped finance a Green Party candidate. There were suspicions that Santorum’s campaign may have violated some federal election laws. Ultimately, the Green Party candidate was denied access to the ballot and Santorum lost his seat in the Senate. The Democrat won with 59% of the vote to Santorum’s 41%. It was the biggest margin of loss for an incumbent Republican senator in US history.
Santorum apparently believes in "an entitlement culture" when it comes for former politicians. Losing an election in 2006 allowed Santorum to become a poster child for how ex-pols quickly and easily cash in in America, as a lawyer-rainmaker and joining a "think tank" (that for a time was called America's Enemies) and as an analyst for the Fox News Channel and as a board member for Universal Health Services, an ethically challenged company where executives had supported his Senate campaigns. The New York Times' Gail Collins noted that Santorum had earned $970,000 in 2010 despite seeming sort of unemployed.
These are just a few of the items that can be found about Mr. Santorum. So if you want to vote for him so be it but don't do it naively and don't speak as though he has values.
He may have values to support his family in any way possible and that is what he did using his political power for personal gain.
Do you work for Romney?
Right on Mitt, you sound exactly like the very person that needs to be defeated and booted out of the Whiite House. Voting for Romney is equivalent to voting for Obama, there're both the same with money, power and influence backing them.
Puppets of their masters who're intent on keeping the status quo of politics and $ first as our country is being fundamentally transformed into a nation of sheep.
Romney's extremely divisive and vicious attacks on his closest Republican rivals are damaging and hurting his own party. He is the poster boy for those who wish to continue the same strangle hold on voters and taxpayers.
Obama will be doing the same against the Primary winner during the General Election battle. If either Obama or Romney wins, nothing will change with the same backers like Goldman Sucks and other major financial power players who are running this show.
None of these guys stand a chance against Obama. They should give up now, and do something useful with the money, instead of wasting it beating a dead horse.
Seriously, how many billions are wasted on this BS? It's beyond a joke, it's pathetic.
I hope Mittens goes broke and loses in Michigan.
How can Romney attack Republicans and Santorum, for spending MORE than the Democrats? Those words will bite the GOP congressional hopefuls. Maybe Mitt is relying on the famous conservative short term memory. AND the Tea Party lack of basic math skills! Yeah, that's it!
Does it matter at this point, The National Republican party has decided voters do not count and are wasting tens of millions of taxpayers dollars on primaries which they have decided will not count. Virtually alienating their own voters from the process of deciding who their nominee will be.
Let's see,,,,,,,
Blacks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Totally alienated by racist welfare comments
Hispanics,,,,,,,,,Totally alienated by racist language comments
Asians,,,,,,,,,,,,,Totally alienated by racism
Unions,,,,,,,,,,,,,Totally alienated by wage & benefit cuts
(by the way over 30% of union mmbers are,,,,,,Republicans)
Workingclass,,,Totally alienated and tax breaks hung out to dry
Women,,,,,,,,,,,,Totally alienated (and disgusted)
Sure,,,,,,,Why not go ahead and alienate ALL Republican voters while your at it
I think that Romney's days are numbered and that the GOP is waking up. He seems to forget that he only has 84 votes as of right now and the race is far from over. I think that Gingrich and Santorum need to keep putting the pressure on. As long as Romney keeps making comments about how he’s not concerned about the very poor, everyone else will have a pretty good chance of catching up. Even still though, I think that conservatives are going to choose to reelect Obama, but will feel better about voting for Santorum as opposed to Romney.
I think that Romney's days are numbered and that the GOP is waking up. He seems to forget that he only has 84 votes as of right now and the race is far from over. I think that Gingrich and Santorum need to keep putting the pressure on. As long as Romney keeps making comments about how he’s not concerned about the very poor, everyone else will have a pretty good chance of catching up. Even still though, I think that conservatives are going to choose to reelect Obama, but will feel better about voting for Santorum as opposed to Romney.
BREAKING NEWS:
Romney also predicts sun will rise in the east tomorrow.