Santorum: Better Obama Than Romney

Elect Mitt Romney president? "We might as well stay with what we have," Rick Santorum said yesterday, "instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future." The former senator emphasized his differences with Obama during a Texas campaign stop. "You win by giving people a choice," he said. "You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who's just going to be a little different than the person in there."

Romney's campaign quickly responded to the charge, citing dismay "that Rick Santorum would rather have Barack Obama as president than a Republican." Indeed, "any of the Republicans running would be better than President Obama," he said; Newt Gingrich offered a similar statement on Twitter, the AP reports. But Santorum wasn't done with Romney, slamming him later for saying he'd "run as a conservative." "He didn't say 'I am a conservative,'" Santorum noted. "So what do you do, you just sort of decide what you're going to be for the elections?" (More Rick Santorum 2012 stories.)