Santorum Says He’ll Support GOP Nominee - East Idaho News
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Santorum Says He’ll Support GOP Nominee

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GETTY P 031412 RickSantorumLa?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1332527720566Sean Gardner/Getty Images(WEST MONROE, La.) — Rick Santorum said Friday that he would support whoever the Republican nominee is in the general election, just one day after he suggested the country might be better off with President Obama in office than with an “etch a sketch” candidate.

“I’m for defeating Barack Obama and I’m going to support whoever wins the Republican primary to beat Barack Obama and that’s the number one issue,” Santorum said. “But we’re not going to beat Barack Obama with someone who has on the biggest issues of the day, the same position as Barack Obama.”

The Romney campaign pounced on his comments, which were made during a speech in San Antonio, Texas, on Thursday, with a statement from the former Massachusetts governor saying that Santorum implied he would prefer to have Obama in office than a Republican, which Santorum insists he did not mean.

“I didn’t say that. I mean look, how many times have you guys heard me say this, that we have to have a clear choice. You guys should do some reporting instead of just reporting what Governor Romney feeds you,” Santorum told reporters.

“I mean I’ve said repeatedly that we need a choice, that we can’t have a decision between Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee,” Satorum clarified. “I’ve said repeatedly and will continue to say I’ll vote for whoever the Republican nominee is…  But we can’t have someone who agrees with him on some of the biggest issues of the day. And that’s the problem with Governor Romney.”

Santorum repeatedly pointed to the “etch a sketch” branding of Romney, arguing that “whatever race he has to run and whatever group he’s in front of, that’s who he’s for. We can’t have a candidate like that and expect to get the people of America excited about it. We see it time and time again on some many important issues. There’s no core, there’s no set of convictions.”

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