For Santorum, Ryan Becomes ‘Some Other Wisconsinite’ After Endorsing Romney
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — After heaping praise on the Rep. Paul Ryan throughout the past week, Rick Santorum suddenly turned cold on him after the Wisconsin congressman endorsed his rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney.
During an appearance at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Pewaukee,Wis. on Saturday, Santorum didn’t cite Ryan by name but only mentioned him as “some other Wisconsinite” when he talked about his tax reform plans.
In the four speeches he delivered Friday, the same day Ryan endorsed Romney, Santorum only mentioned Ryan once, at a GOP Victory Center in Eau Claire, and that mention only occurred after reporters at his previous event in Hudson pointed out to him that he’d omitted him from his stump speech. Santorum insisted the exclusion was not intentional and told reporters he’d include him in the next speech.
“Well, I’ll mention him in the next one, just to make sure. I support his budget, he’s done a great job with it,” Santorum told reporters on the rope line Friday morning after a rally at the Hudson Golf Club.
By the third and fourth speeches of the day, references to Ryan were wiped out completely.
Santorum spoke affectionately of Ryan throughout the past week, even visiting Janesville, Ryan’s birthplace, and dedicating a good portion of his speech there to lauding the congressman. Santorum even argued that Ryan’s fiscal blueprint will help the GOP win the election.
But with Saturday’s snub and Friday’s omissions of Ryan from the same stump speech he’s delivered in Wisconsin for the past week, it looks like Santorum’s lost that loving feeling for Ryan.
While Santorum stopped praising Ryan in his speeches, he did maintain the main feature of the speeches he’s delivered consistently in Wisconsin: criticism of Romney. Santorum was the lone candidate at the Faith and Freedom Coalition forum to swing at his GOP rivals, specifically attacking Romney for the healthcare plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts.
“You have one person who can make that case. And you have one who can’t,” Santorum said, speaking of having a Republican nominee capable of debating Obama on healthcare.
“Why?” Santorum asked. “Because he presented the blueprint for ‘Obamacare.’”
As he has all week, Santorum called Romney “uniquely disqualified” to take on the president.
“Why in the world would the Republican Party give that issue away in the general election?” he said.
Santorum’s battle cry to the social conservative audience was simple: “No Etch-A-Sketch.”
“Gov. Romney said he’s going to run as a conservative in response to the Etch-A-Sketch scandal,” Santorum said. “I’m not going to run as a conservative. I am a conservative.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio