After impressive Super Tuesday victories in Tennessee and Oklahoma, Rick Santorum said he's regained his momentum and declared, “We keep coming back!”
Santorum earned some bragging rights and was able to secure his status as the alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney. His rival for that distinction, Newt Gingrich, won only his home state of Georgia and was disappointed by losses to Santorum in conservative-tilting Tennessee and Oklahoma.
“We’re going to win a few, we’re going to lose a few,” Santorum said to a crowd in Steubenville, Ohio. “But, as it looks right now, we're going to get at least a couple of gold medals and a whole passel full of silver medals.”
At the time of his remarks, the outcome in Ohio was too close to call between Santorum and Romney. Even if Santorum wins the popular vote in Ohio, he cannot secure the majority of delegates because of a registration error.
“This is the beginning of the end of freedom in America,” he said. “Once the government has control of your life, then they've got you. That's why we decided to step out.” He said the issue that “broke the camel’s back” was President Obama’s health care reform law.
Although he primarily focused on Obama, Santorum took a shot at Romney’s health care reform in Massachusetts by saying that he never supported an individual mandate and promoted it at the federal level.
“It's one thing to defend a mandated, top-down, government-run health care program you imposed on the people of your state,” he said. “It's another thing to recommend and encourage the president of the United States to impose the same thing on the American people. And it's another thing yet to go out and tell the American public that you didn't do it.”
He continued, “We need a person running against President Obama who is right on the issues and truthful with the American public.”
Santorum is expected to focus next on upcoming contests in Alabama, Kansas, and Mississippi.
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