The Republican presidential hopefuls have spent a lot of time arguing about which one of them is the most (severely) conservative, making Rick Santorum’s endorsement of Barack Obama over Mitt Romney yesterday a bit of a surprise. Santorum told a crowd at a campaign stop in Texas that Republicans might as well vote for Obama over Romney if Romney is the Republican nominee. Santorum broke down his logic for the crowd in San Antonio:
>“You win by giving people a choice. You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there. If they’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future.”
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (that’s “Speaker Gingrich” to you) pounced on Santorum’s comment. The Romney campaign, eager to turn attention away from its Etch A Sketch debacle, released a statement scolding Santorum for not seeing the bigger picture:
“This election is more important than any one person. It is about the future of America. Any of the Republicans running would be better than President Obama and his record of failure.”
Newt chimed in, too. (Good for you, Newt!) “Rick Santorum is dead wrong. Any GOP nominee will be better than Obama,” he tweeted.
