Share

Email Print Comments Share

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- Rick Santorum is sounding a bit like Newt Gingrich did when he was on the ropes in Florida and Mitt Romney was poised to overtake him in polling there. There was a tone of grievance in his voice that underscored the words he chose on the stump here Friday.

"I know sometimes I can get wound up," Santorum told a group of supporters at the Chillicothe High School gymnasium. But, he said, "the words out of my mouth are my own. They're not written by some poll-tested speechwriter."

The comments were aimed, in part, at President Obama, who is famous for his soaring rhetoric and his use of a teleprompter. But with Ohio's GOP presidential primary just four days away and the polls growing increasingly tight, the real target was Romney.

The national front-runner often writes his own speeches, but they can come across as more calculated and methodical, and less emotional, than Santorum's. They also contain what seem to be poll-tested applause lines.

And so, the former Pennsylvania senator said, "it's about what is inside, and if all you hear is words from someone else, how do you see that?" He continued, "I think you have a right to know who you're voting for."

He also complained about the Michigan Republican Party awarding the state’s two at-large delegates to Romney -- based on a new rule adopted last month -- after the two candidates had first split them, earning a total of 15 delegates apiece in Tuesday's primary. Santorum's campaign has said it will challenge the decision. The complaints were not unlike those that Gingrich made about the Romney campaign's use of negative advertising, essentially buying itself a win in other voting states.

So Santorum gave the Ohio voters the details, asserting that he actually earned more votes than Romney on Election Day -- that is, not counting the early ballots that had been cast.

"My feeling on that is conservatives, Americans, play by the rules. They don't change the rules after the fact," he said.

"I want to win this election not because I desperately want to be president," he said -- an apparent knock at Romney, whom some analysts have mocked for a stop-at-nothing desire to reach the Oval Office. "I want to win this election because we need someone who believes in the goodness and decency of the American people."

Kicking at Romney a bit more, he added, "We want someone who is a conservative in their heart, in their soul, in their mind; someone who is not afraid to talk about all of the issues."

Romney's message to Ohio voters this week has returned to a general election attack on President Obama, the economy and his views on taxes, China, trade and regulations. He's made a small push to talk about manufacturing, although that is more in Santorum's wheelhouse, and he's struck a more populist tone that tends to resonate in the Buckeye State.

Santorum, in his remarks here, tossed a bone to Ohioans, saying, "You guys are at the center of everything." He joked that Ohio is always the most important political state; it's developed that reputation because analysts say a Republican has no pathway to victory over a Democrat without winning its 18 electoral votes. And now, it represents a critical juncture for him, a place where Santorum could regain momentum in the GOP race if he pulls off a win -- or where his candidacy could be very nearly put to bed.

As of Friday, the most recent polls show Romney closing the once sizable gap between himself and Santorum in the state. In light of that, the former Massachusetts governor is making a heavy push this weekend to win support in the conservative southwestern region of Ohio, hoping to overcome Santorum's advantages in the state that neighbors his own.