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CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Locked in a tight contest with Rick Santorum across the Midwest for the delegate-rich states of Michigan and Ohio, Mitt Romney continued his assault on the former Pennsylvania senator's fiscal conservatism today, saying he, not Santorum, was the true "budget hawk."
"One of the people I'm running against, Sen. Santorum, goes to Washington and calls himself a budget hawk,” Romney said in a campaign stop at a medical device company this afternoon before about 100. “Then after he’s been there a while he says he’s no longer a budget hawk. Well, I am a budget hawk. I don’t want to spend more money than we take in.
The attack line comes as polls show Romney trailing in Ohio to Santorum and as the campaign has looked to paint its latest primary rival as the consummate "career politician" -- the same attack they levied with varying degrees of success against Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. His campaign has held almost daily conference calls and fill reporter inboxes with research on Santorum's voting record and years in Washington. In recent days, the candidate himself has begun to step up his rhetoric against Santorum, a trend which continued today, with little variance from previous attacks.
"[Santorum] voted five times to raise the debt ceiling without any compensating cuts in spending,” Romney said. “During his time in the Senate, over two terms, the size of the federal government grew 80 percent. When Republicans go to Washington and spend like Democrats, we get a lot of spending. And that’s what we’ve seen over the last several years."
The Romney campaign has also looked to gain traction in the Midwest by deploying their big-name surrogates. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, have all spoken on Romney's behalf at events in Michigan. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is holding a conference call with reporters on Romney's behalf this afternoon, and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman (who Democrats were quick to point out today has also cast votes to raise the debt ceiling) introduced Romney to his home-state audience today.
Bold-faced names aside, Romney kept the focus on his own experience while addressing the small group of employees who gathered to hear his address, telling them that the experience of leadership -- of anything -- should be required for prospective presidents.
"I happen to think that one of the criteria for selecting the president ought to be: has this person led something before,” Romney said. “Our current president had not, and I think we've seen the consequence of that in some of the errors that he's made. I have led things. The business I started, the business I helped turn around, an Olympics, and a state. Take a look at that record."
Today's single campaign event was also notable for what it lacked -- many of the hallmarks of a traditional Romney campaign stop. There was no warm up music, no mention of "America the Beautiful," a minimal amount of signs, and a noticeable lack of energy from the crowd; People applauded only sparingly as Romney defended his fiscal conservatism and lauded the entrepreneurial spirit of the people of Ohio.
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Careful criticizing Santorum, Mr. Romney. He will sic the Pope and a few archangels on your butt.
Any word on whether or not the 'trees are just the right height in OH'?
Only in the world according to Willard...
The trees in Ohio are like our citizens, all varieties of all sizes.
When I played golf in Michigan I found the trees to be too plentiful.
I guess the trees are severely plentiful!
Poor, Poor Malibu Mitt, he did'nt get the memo about the meaning of "Severly Conservative"!
Lemme Splain toya Malibu Mitt:
Severly Conservative means that you bring a Gun to a Knife Fight, such as Little Rick Santorum did this past weekend in being the TopDog of the RightWingBibleThumpin BandWagon. Everything from "The Invasion of the Vagina Snatchers", to a reference to "Hitler" & just today"The Presidents Radical Islamic Policy"!
See Malibu Mitt, that is Severly Conservative, so FillUp your FlameThrower & get in Da Game, or be left by the side of Road wonderin:
What,What, What Happened!
On the Bright side of things, My 2 sets of Cardinals flew back in here yesterday with the half-inch Snowstorm of 2012!
Occupy SoggyBottom!
Rick,
Love your explanation of a "severly conservative". I do not think Romney is one.
Cardianls have arrived in Kentucky, neat!
Here in MN ,winter stopped by for a week but has not been seen since...
I enjoy reading your posts.
Thanx NorthStar, I know a lil a bout someone being Severly Conservative. My Wife(Miss Daisy) is a Republican who is Severly Conservative when I wanna buy something, but Tree-Hugging Liberal when she wants to buy something. But she in NoWay resembles this bunch on Social Issues.
Our Liberal Democrat-Moderate Republican Marriage is a work in Progress.
We have Bird Feeders here where we live, & every year we look for our 2 sets of Cardinals & 2 sets of Doves to come back & visit. About a week ago i saw 2 Robins, so Spring isa springing here at:
Occupy SoggyBottom!
Looks like even this thread is getting a tepid reception...
Makes you wonder how few people will turn out to vote for Republicans in November, when so few show up to defend their candidates now.
"[Santorum] voted five times to raise the debt ceiling without any compensating cuts in spending - Romney.
^ All the Republicans did. All they required was Bush in office. If Santorum or Romney become President (NOT!) then they will do the same, and the GOP will vote the same.
I really dislike Santorum and Romney but for different reasons.
Santorum is a fanatical misogynistic religious bigot.
Romney is a spoiled rich brat, who thinks he's better and smarter than you.
He takes flip-flop positions because he thinks you don't pay attention any way.
And he makes completely disingenuous arguments because he thinks you're dumb and will go for it.
When Romney was put in charge of the Olympics and then ran to the federal government for a handout..... WAS THAT A PART OF HIS DEFICIT HAWKERY?
Raise your hand if you actually take anything Willard says seriously?
Yep, thought not.
Santorum the" Vatican candidate" is trying to set up a theocracy. Once again the GOP is out of touch with 88% of the people of the USA ..His cult beliefs make him ANTI AMERICAN.. He and the GOP are a dividing wedge, and will divide the people of the USA not unite them !
Dennis, Columbus, Ohio, who do you think Ohioans like in 2012? Are there enough sane people in Ohio who will support Obama/Biden in November?
Mitt that must suck that santorum is on top. Just makes me wonder.
Mitt can't get the taste of Santorum out of his mouth, and it is making him mad!
Well, I am a budget hawk. I don’t want to spend more money than we take in.
January fundraising take - $6+ million. January spending $18+. Humm
Well I said I didn't want to, didn't say I wouldn't do it. So I did it against my principles.
This guy should not stray into the fiscal responsibility topic if he wants folks to forget his Olympics pork barrel lobbying.
The true ramifications of the Republican Party's increasingly nasty and drawn out primary tussle for the nomination will not be felt until the summer and the general campaign between Obama and whomever decides they want to run on the GOP ticket commences. The GOP has undergone an even greater shift to the right than that which occurred in 2010 as the Tea Party swept into power across the country. We have contraception and a debate over what Republicans say is our president's "radical Islamic theology" as the two pressing issues according to conservatives. Romney shifts right to beat Santorum, but what of the GOP nominee when real, normal Americans come to the polls in November? DOA... http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Romney sounds nervous and a little unsure of himself in the last couple of campaign speeches I have seen.
Santorum on the other hand is finding his voice as the standard bearer of the cultural/religious extremists of the GOP base.
BTW, when is the next and final debate before super Tuesday?
Northstar...the enxt debate is Wed, 22 Feb on CNN.......get the popcorn ready!
Chilled,
Thanks for the update.
i got the three variety cannister of popcorn. I am ready...
Chilled: I wonder if Brewer is going to wag her finger in the faces of the debaters? When they hit the tarmac. Sorry, dumb question. She reserves that childish behavior for moderates and liberals, and the POTUS. I also wonder if my health plan covers popcorn OD.
Northstar
I get a distinct impression that Sanctimonium's speeches are patterned after the Sunday morning preachers I stumble across on the TV.
They are streams of consciousness based on a general outline of his bullet points. I doubt that he knows what is going to come out of his mouth in his next sentence.
Entertaining for his believing worshipers but very dangerous on a world stage.
"I am a budget hawk...... I have led things. The business I started, the business I helped turn around"
You know, this is just a thought, but perhaps the audiences at Romney's events would be a little more enthusiastic if he tried switching up his pronouns once in a while.
"You". "We". "Us".
What's that old saying about there's no "I" in teamwork? There sure seem to be plenty of them in "Romney".
Can Obama get a budget done?
Has Obama ever demonstrated he has any clue about business?
What has Obama ever turned anything around?
At least Romney was talking about things he had actually done.
Obama used the word "I" 4 times in 7 sentences regarding Congress passing the payroll tax legislation .... something they did, not Obama!
Someone needs to tell Mitt that he won't be able to balance the U.S. budget the way he made the Olympics profitable----by getting money from the federal government. He also won't be able to outsource jobs and terminate pension plans. This could crimp his style.
Obama used the word "I" 4 times in 7 sentences regarding Congress erpassing the payroll tax legislation .... something they did, not Obama!
The guy has no class whatsoever. I've never come across anyone more divisive. Sad for the country really.
Rob: try looking in the mirror.
Yes, but there is an "I" in win... just sayin...
Gee, I haven't seen Conservatives using the "Obama is a narcissist" meme recently.
Just goes to show that no Conservative lie ever goes away...just reintroduce it later and maybe people will forget how lame it sounded last time.
We are getting one step closer to electing a better leader for our country. The front page of the Des Moines Register shows Obama trailing the Top three Republican candidates. That is a good sign for the future of America. A lot of first time voters in '08 are taking a far more educated approach to the ballot box in 2012...
Des Moines, thats in Iowa right? (Iowa - Idiots out walking around!)
Yep It is Uncle Gar, Were the same idiots that gave Obama his start in '08. I was afraid we hadnt learned a lesson since then. But in 2010 we flushed out a ton of idiots and it looks like we'll do more in 2012.
Isn't Iowa where the Amish live? Don't think they have telephones. So how do they do polls, go out and knock on doors?
Santorum has blown it. It's over for him. No way will he be the Republican nominee.
No way.
UAW Pleeeeeeease: Sorry you and your Republican friends are about to go down in a big heap of Santorum, Willard, and Newt, that Ron Paul can't overcome. Easy win for the President as long as gas prices aren't exborinate (5.00 a gallon).
A few funny comments over @ HuffingtonPost this weekend:
Why is it that this group of misguided republican candidates all get to the top of the heap and then run their mouths all the way back down to the bottom? It's amazing.
But, it's fun to watch! Like a roller-coaster but we're not on it.
I am waiting for Santorum to tell everyone to lay their hands on the TV so he can heal them.
Santorum 1612!
*****************
So long little Ricky.
I think we are all on it because it says a lot about how ridiculous our election process has become. I don't care if Santorum tells everyone to lay their hands on the tv. As long as the right wing of his ilk keep their politically dirty hands off of my body through policy!
Jeffrey B. Greer
I find that interesting. I do recall, that when gas prices spiked during the Bush administration, the republican's telling us, that there was very little that congress, or the president could do about it.
It looks like the gutter is full of low-life GOP wannabe candidates dukeing it out to see who can be the one to lose against Obama in the November election! Personally, I think Romney will arise from the slime as the "winner", if that's what you want to call it, but he isn't going to be pretty after that beating by his fellow GOP hopefuls.
So who do you think the GOP will fish out of their barrel in their brokered convention?
Sigh. I'm really worried that Santorum might actually win this thing and have a shot at being president. He is the embodiment of all that is wrong with the far right. Too caught up in their ideology and conspiracy theories to see the benefit of moderation. That guy has no right being POTUS. He brings nothing to the table but his stubborn refusal to accept that maybe--just maybe--there's more than one way to skin a cat, and that guy on the other side of the aisle might actually have a good idea or two.
At least Romney knew when to moderate his positions to do the right thing. Or at least try. And apparently he does know a thing or two about the economy, which is more than I can say for Santorum.
How do we bring Huntsman back??
See my post 9.1. Maybe a brokered Convention will give it up and swing to a true intelligent moderate.
this is really sounding like a bunch of Valley Girls
Mitt got to eat any thing he best food, sleep in a nice bed, his house warmed in winter and cooled in the hot summer, and he went to such good prep schools, then to BYU, and then off to Harvard for an MBA and JD degrees and then got a nice bailout from his Poppa to buy his first home. Jeez, how hard can it be for a guy huh? He makes his money off failed businesses, resuscitating them, and losing the ambulance crew in the process (a metaphor for jobs lost during his slime ball takeovers), then goes to Mass as Governor and passes very similar legislation, in fact almost look-alike legislation sponsored previously and since then by the Democrats. Golly Gee Mitt, boy wonder. Have you ever had to fight for you life in the streets of real competition Mitt? Daddy always provided you with superior armament Mitt, but in the reality of a mano a mano, I see Silver Spoon Mitt getting pummeled and punched out early - no staying power beyond his wealth, which is large, but when the wealth is gone, the spirit must then arise. Must be a little on the testy side for a guy who buys things when he wants them to look out and see only a few people gathered to hear his non-Gettysburg address, clap slightly and then slink away. Ahh, but then he just goes back to his first class lodgings, orders a real New York steak, some potatos au gratin, sweet peas and a bottle of Dom Perignon
Wake up America, this man thinkgs the USA is for sale, and look what happens when he purchases something?
Santorum the" Vatican candidate" is trying to set up a theocracy. Once again the GOP is out of touch with 88% of the people of the USA ..His cult beliefs make him ANTI AMERICAN.. He and the GOP are a dividing wedge, and will divide the people of the USA not unite them !
WOW, I must have flunked government class back in High School. I always thought Congress did the budget allocations, not Pres Mittens.
I'm glad to know he will personally get this all straightened out (w/a Democratic congress, no less - I bet???)
Where we ask-or dare we ask-was Rick Santorum when goverment grew 80% during the Bush years? Where was the fiscal restrain in conducting 2 wars and one big entitlment program on their watch? Where was the cal to sacrifice at home while Amricansssacrificed aborad losing life and limb?
Where was the c all that goes beyond just singing america the Beatiful to real sacrifice?
Even at this late daste wit hwar going on in Afgansitan- we still don't hear Republicans fee l that they need to sacrifce the Buah tax cutsf orthe good of the country. In 10 years of war they haven't even called for one year of sacrifice!
How patriotic is that?
Santrum can vote to fund the rock and roll hall of fame as an earmark while denoucing funding education.
He's still stuckin the 1950's.
By the way, thanks President Obama for lowering the acceptable levels of mercury emitted from coal burning plants, raising the cost of electricity and killing jobs. Is the Environmental Defense Fund really saying that 11,000 people die each year in the US from mercury poisoning? If so, where are they? The media would love to show us convulsing mercury poisoning victims. A person absorbs more mercury from their silver-mercury fillings (all silver fillings) than they could possibly absorb from water or air borne mercury from burning coal. The brain-mercury levels are many times higher for people with silver fillings than those without. This is another example of the EPA not doing any cost benefit analysis before implementing expensive new regulations. The Environmental Defense Fund also lobbies.
Ron
Can't judge Mitter's IQ other than by his political maneuverings. Gotta give him a c+ on major issues. Fiscal responsibility (i.e spending) he is for and against. Current GOP social wedge issues, he is for and against. Foreign involvement, he is for and against. Deficit hawk, vaporize the budget deficit by cutting taxes.
Don't be deluded by the BYU and Harvard degrees. Plenty of really smart people graduate from Harvard (including Obama) but that is not a prerequisite for admission. Offspring of prominent and/or wealthy families have their pick of Ivy league schools. Poor folks gotta work their way in.
Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College (highly selective) without a degree. Give me an argument that Romney is a better businessman or job creator than Steve (sadly) was.
PS Don't try to limit patriots to those of your political belief. That is a signal that your mind is locked up tight.