As Romney tries to fend off the continuing challenge from Gingrich and focus his attention on President Obama, he is now being forced to deal with another rival: Rick Santorum. Santorum is positioned to do well in Minnesota’s caucuses today. If he wins there, it would interrupt Mr. Romney’s efforts to present an unchallenged march to the Republican presidential nomination after his consecutive victories in Florida and Nevada. Yesterday, Mr. Romney’s campaign began unloading criticism on Mr. Santorum, who had largely escaped being the target of Mr. Romney’s formidable campaign machine.
“Rick Santorum is a nice guy, but he is simply not ready to be president,” Tim Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota and a top surrogate for Mr. Romney, wrote in a statement Monday morning. That was followed by two e-mails from Mr. Romney’s campaign: one titled “Rick Santorum: Proud Defender of Earmarks and Pork-Barrel Spending,”.
Mr. Santorum’s campaign responded by accusing Mr. Romney’s “well-financed seek-and-destroy attack machine” of becoming nervous about the threat he represents, which is so true. Campaigning in Minnesota, Mr. Santorum attacked the health care program that Mr. Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, helped push through the Legislature. Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, might find more strength in the rust belt and polls suggest that Mr. Romney might have trouble connecting with voters. This could be Santorum's big shot and he does not want to miss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment