Rick Santorum: Wisconsin Primary Vote Will Send 'Strong Signal'

MILWAUKEE -- Rick Santorum said Sunday that his presidential campaign will continue even if he loses the Wisconsin primary Tuesday, and he balked at suggestions by fellow conservatives that he step aside so front-runner Mitt Romney can build momentum ahead of November's election.

The conservative presidential hopeful said walking away now would be like the Kansas basketball team giving up in the first half, when it trailed by more than 10 points Saturday night against Ohio State, before rallying to win and advance to the NCAA title game.

"Look, this race isn't even at halftime yet," Santorum told "Fox News Sunday."

Santorum faces an uphill battle for the nomination. With about half of the GOP nominating contests complete, Romney has won 54 percent of the delegates at stake, putting him on track to reach the threshold 1,144 national convention delegates in June.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, who has won 27 percent of the delegates at stake, would need to win 74 percent of the remaining delegates to cinch the nomination.

Santorum acknowledged on NBC's "Meet the Press' that the Wisconsin vote will send a "strong signal" about the direction of the Republican contest.

But he also dismissed the notion that a prolonged primary would harm the party's chances against President Barack Obama in November. Santorum says GOP establishment figures are making that argument to convince voters that "they need Mitt Romney shoved down their throats."

Santorum said on Fox that Romney "hasn't painted a positive vision of this country. He hasn't been able to close the deal with conservatives, much less anybody else in this party. And that's not going to be an effective tool for us to win this election."

Romney was given a boost on Friday when Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan endorsed him, and then Sunday, first-term Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., also said he was backing the former Massachusetts governor.

Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Sunday that he thinks Romney has a good chance of winning a lot of delegates in Wisconsin.

"I think conservatives should coalesce around the Romney campaign and move on to the general election. And I hope a big victory on Tuesday will do just that," Paul said on ABC "This Week."

Comments

[Jamzhelm]

03:04 PM on 04/02/2012

Romney's wife wants to unzip him, and Rick wants to shove him down people's throats?

Wow, this has got to be the strangest primary season ever!

[ciotog17]

11:35 AM on 04/02/2012

Santorum acknowledged on NBC's "Meet the Press' that the Wisconsin vote will send a "strong signal" about the direction of the Republican contest.
-------
Signal received: Abandon hope, all ye who run against Obama!

[HitnMyths]

11:20 AM on 04/02/2012

Shoved down your throat, shoved down your throat, shoved down your throat, down your throat, down your throat, shoved down your throat, down your throat, shoved, shoved, shoved...
Poor Mrs Santorum

[CanadianSkeptic]

10:53 AM on 04/02/2012

What's worse, having Mitt Romney or Santorum shoved down your throat?

[proveit2me]

10:32 AM on 04/02/2012

Something tells me we are about a year away from grainy photos of Rick Santorum and Kirk Cameron in the bathroom stall at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

[Doug MacKenzie]

10:31 AM on 04/02/2012

Ricky is so obsessed with sex he can't think straight. Really. He can't....;)

[iskra]

09:56 AM on 04/02/2012

His preoccupation with sex is a clear sign of an underlying disturbance.

[JBaker]

09:44 AM on 04/02/2012

I forgot to ask, Rick, but what do you do for a living? What highly useful technical skills have you mastered after years of hard study?

[Rita from PA]

04:47 PM on 04/02/2012

Good question. Also , when he was the Junior Senator from PA how did he afford to buy a farm in VA and move out of PA?
He also lied to PA residents about where he lived and billed us for homeschooling his children in VA!

[l78lancer]

04:59 AM on 04/03/2012

He makes his living as a leech off the special interest that courted him while hew was in congress.

[loco48]

09:31 AM on 04/02/2012

A metaphor for oral sex. This guys whole campaign is about sex!

[tlgpa]

09:06 AM on 04/02/2012

And Ricky knows a thing or two about shoving things down the throats of others. Unless you obey all of his views, you better open wide.

[exhale09]

08:31 AM on 04/02/2012

Ricky...don't GOP voters have minds of their own, they need the establishment to shove a candidate "down their throats"? Do they hold guns to conservative voter's heads as they walk into the voting booth and do NOT vote for you?

Stop whining, you sound like you are 8 years old.

[Jim Pasterczyk]

03:08 AM on 04/02/2012

Ricky, why are you so obsessed with bodily orifices?

[JBaker]

09:49 AM on 04/02/2012

Freud accurately analyzed this and it all gets back to the first three years of development: age 1 year and the fixation on oral gratification, then age 2-3 and the anal stage with fixation on bowel and bladder control.

[iskra]

09:57 AM on 04/02/2012

As this study showed, those most homophobic....

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8772014

[morven]

02:34 AM on 04/02/2012

NO don't stop saint ricky...I am enjoying watch the gop make fools of themselves!

[MizzMaat]

01:10 AM on 04/02/2012

Can he EVER say ANYTHING that doesn't have a sexual connotation? Jeez.

[Shiral]

03:15 AM on 04/02/2012

He's so sexually repressed, evidently it HAS to come out somehow! =o)

[YOKEL13]

12:27 AM on 04/02/2012

From the article:

But he [Santorum] also dismissed the notion that a prolonged primary would harm the party's chances against President Barack Obama in November. Santorum says GOP establishment figures are making that argument to convince voters that "they need Mitt Romney shoved down their throats."

The seksual imagery just falls naturally from Santorum's lips.

[pmoschetta]

07:32 AM on 04/02/2012

Rick you mean as opposed to you shoving your religious nonsense down OUR throats?