GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks at a rally support at the Dalton (Ga.) City Hall early today.DALTON, Ga. – At a campaign stop here this morning, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum trashed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but never mentioned Newt Gingrich, despite polls showing the former House Speaker ahead in his home state of Georgia.
“Everybody says, ‘Oh, how are you going to go up against, you know, Gov. Romney? He’s so nasty and mean with the negative ads,'” Santorum told about 200 at Dalton City Hall. “I’ve been up against a lot tougher, and we won.”
The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania did not mention losing his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey Jr., a Democrat who won 58 percent of the vote to Santorum’s 41 percent.
In a 35-minute speech, Santorum criticized Romney’s health care efforts in Massachusetts and President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill, using the term “socialism” at least once.
Santorum said the next president needs to bring health care “back to the people,” citing health savings accounts as an example.