Santorum: Obama, Romney share distrust of America

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum visits with supporters during a rally at the Battleship Memorial Park, March 9, 2012, in Mobile, Alabama. / AP Photo/Eric Gay

(AP) TOPEKA, Kan. - Hoping to tap into deep distrust of Washington, Republican Rick Santorum suggested Friday that President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney share a top priority: to take away Americans' money and freedom so they can tell them how to live.

A day before Kansas Republicans weigh in on the party's presidential contest, Santorum looked to shore up support in this Midwestern state that seemed ready to give the former Pennsylvania senator yet another win and further challenge Romney's front-runner status. With sharp rhetoric, Santorum likened Romney to Obama and cast both as unacceptable for conservatives.

"We already have one president who doesn't tell the truth to the American people. We don't need another," Santorum said to cheers. "Gov. Romney reinvents himself for whatever the political occasion calls for."

Santorum has hammered Romney for a health care overhaul he signed into law as Massachusetts governor. Santorum's advisers see the issue as Romney's biggest weakness among conservatives. They make up the bulk of the Republican Party's nominating base but have so far split their votes between Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

"The worst offender is Gov. Romney. He put the template for Obamacare in place in Massachusetts," Santorum said.

Massachusetts requires citizens to buy health insurance. That mandate is central to Democrats' national plan, and Santorum called it unconstitutional.

Campaigning in Alabama, Romney fired back, characterizing Santorum as coming from the Washington establishment he's worked to distance himself from and reminding the former Pennsylvania senator — and voters — about a delegate count that puts Romney much closer to the nomination.

Santorum disputes Romney's delegate count

"Washington insider Rick Santorum is lashing out at Mitt Romney because he can't accept the fact that it's nearly impossible for him to win the number of delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

Romney currently has 431 delegates committed to his nomination, while Santorum has 181 out of the 1,144 needed. Gingrich trails with 107 and Ron Paul has 46, according to Associated Press calculations.

Santorum's small-government message resonated with Allan Holthaus, a 63-year-old Topeka contractor and farmer, who said he views Santorum as the most honest GOP candidate and the one most likely to try to deliver on his campaign promises.

Greeting Santorum after the rally, he said: "You help us get the government off our backs, and we'll help you fix it, that's for sure."

Santorum was also hoping to muscle Gingrich out of the race in the coming weeks, if not after Tuesday's contests in Alabama and Mississippi. Gingrich's advisors had said the former House speaker must win both states to stay in the race. Santorum's advisers anticipate Gingrich's conservative supporters would turn to Santorum and perhaps derail Romney's better-organized, better-funded political organization.

"We feel very confident that we can win Kansas on Saturday and come into Alabama and Mississippi and this race should come down to two people," Santorum told reporters.

And as the race turned South, the Santorum campaign on Friday hammered Gingrich on immigration, an issue likely to play prominently among Southern conservatives. Santorum turned to a key supporter and immigration hawk, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., to criticize Gingrich for supporting legislation that would, among other things, allow some children of illegal immigrants to become citizens.

"This is not just an immigration issue but a national security issue — and Newt Gingrich fails our nation on both counts," Tancredo said, charging that Gingrich would "adopt the policies of the left."

Gingrich told The Associated Press at a campaign stop in Mississippi that win or lose on Tuesday, he's staying in the race through to the Republican National Convention scheduled for August in Tampa, Fla.

"We'll clearly do well enough to move on, and I think there's a fair chance we'll win. But I just want to set this to rest once and for all: We're going to Tampa."

Even before he arrived in Kansas, a state his rivals largely overlooked, Santorum signaled strength here.

"Since Romney and Gingrich have decided not to campaign in Kansas, we feel pretty confident that we're going to do well," Santorum told reporters before leaving Alabama.

Despite his anti-Washington message, Santorum faced grumbling from tea party activists for skipping their big rally in the state's largest city. They spent $25,000 to rent the Century II arena in downtown Wichita and expected 1,000 to 3,000 people to attend.

"It seems like it is counterproductive to show up for an event that is going to have 300 people in an airplane hangar instead (of) 3,000 people in a nice setting where you can actually contact and really maybe sway somebody," said Craig Gabel, the president of Kansas For Liberty, which organized the Wichita event.

Paul, the congressman from Texas, was the only presidential candidate participating in the tea party event.

Santorum appeared not to know the timing of the tea party event and said he had to get to a speech Friday evening in Houston, a commitment he said was made months ago.

[seerclearly]

If the distrust of America they share is the distrust of the voters and their ability to make good decisions, it is a very valid distrust:
http://www.thetigernews.com/news.php?aid=6611&sid=2
If voters can't make good decisions, then they are by default expecting politicians to be smarter than they are since they are still relying on politicians to solve the nation's problems.

This contradicts recent behavior that the non-smart ones pick politicians that are more stupid than they are so they can feel comfortable with themselves- witness Sarah Palin or Christine O'donnell, etc.

The point of a Republic - which is our governmental system - is that our government is somewhat insulated from voter stupidity. However if the big money drives selection of stupid, manipulatable politicians that can easily be swayed to vote for corporate interests, then our nation is lost. This is why Romney and Obama don't trust the voters... and the voters are "America." Everything else about 'distrusting america' is just a campaign slogan!

[Reddbird]

Hate to say it, but most of the GOP and most of it's supporters have become really unhinged, almost like Elvis Presley in his final years: completely divorced from reality, hence the need to create scandals that don't really exist.

[ProtectAmericanJobs]

Gingrich is one of the same Washington good old boys that have allowed American jobs to be rapidly outsourced over the past 15-20 years and Romney's a clown who's been downsizing companies here in the US by sending those jobs to other countries. They're just giving us more the of same old political rhetoric. Out of all of them, I think Santorum would be better for our country in the long run. He's the only one that's really talking about bringing manufacturing back to the USA.

We need whoever wins to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.

We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home.

Let's guess why? Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word.

I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street and CEOs promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us? The so-called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by doing this, but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work. I'm not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I'm just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so-called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.

We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America! This not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let's keep that money and those jobs here in the US.

The "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field! We should provide tax incentives and if necessary even partial subsidies or grants to companies that manufacture products here in the USA with US Citizens. We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we're importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue. We also need to bring customer support services back to the United States of America and staff them with employees that are US Citizens. Both political parties sold out the American people by letting Wall Street, Corp Board of Directors and CEOs open the floodgates. There's nothing wrong with making a profit and people in these other countries deserve to earn a higher standard of living, but our leaders can't allow it to happen at the expense of the American people, who they're supposed to represent. Both the Democrats and Republicans have to stop just arguing along party lines and actually get things done that are in the best interests of the United States of America and all US Citizens, including the majority of our citizens.

Most US Citizens are not as concerned about the "Global Economy" as they are about being able to earn a living, their children's future and the future of our country. We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.

The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.

--------------------------------------------------

Oh and ideas like downsizing of the military and our schools are just going to put more people on unemployment and weaken our nation. How about using some of the military personnel, that some folks are talking about cutting to help us secure our borders instead.

[retm-w]

Funny rick voted for taxbreaks to companies that outscourced jobs offshore.

[1pheasant1]

Joseph Smith, Jr. / Bernard Francis Law 2012

[intonews]

Everytime this guy opens his mouth even the bible thumpers should question his sincerity of uniting this country. He's a joke. If he wins the nomination the GOP can only blame themselves for putting up such poor candidates. With Santorum and his extreme views it's highly unlikely they will have a win in November.

[twmat311]

Santorum cannot be allowed to get the nomination. His campaign of fear and slamming his opponents has to come to an end. He believes the way for him to win is for the opposition to simply get out of the way.

He is so much the wrong candidate for this time; this needs to be clear to everyone.

[oftucson]

What should scare you is either Santorum or Gingrich as Romney's VP running mate.

[jimatmadison]

We know that Mr Santorum doesn't trust American women to take responsibility for their own reproductive health.

In a Santorum administration, that'd be the job of Big Gummint.

I think that Santorum might pull out if Romney offered him the position of Secretary of Peeking in Bedroom Windows.

[samyspade]

Is this clown for real?

[jimatmadison]

Yes, he's a real clown. The only sane, electable Republican was pushed out of the GOP Presidential Nominating Clown Car a long time ago.

[JimArjuna]

Well, if there were many around akin Santorum their trust would be stretched.
For Santorum is a dishonest man.