Santorum's Turn To Gaffe: Pick Obama Over Romney

March 23, 2012 08:24 am

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Barack Obama · Mitt Romney · Newt Gingrich · Rick Santorum · New York Magazine: Daily Intel · Go!

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Slate's founder Michael Kinsley defines a gaffe as something a politician says that he actually means. Rick Santorum had one of those yesterday at a campaign stop in Texas, where he told the crowd that Republicans might as well vote for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney if Romney is the Republican nominee. Santorum broke down his logic for the crowd in San Antonio:

"You win by giving people a choice. 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. If they're going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch-A-Sketch candidate for the future."

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (that's "Speaker Gingrich" to you) pounced on Santorum's comment. The Romney campaign, eager to turn attention away from its Etch-A-Sketch debacle, released a statement scolding Santorum for not seeing the bigger picture:

"This election is more important than any one person. It is about the future of America. Any of the Republicans running would be better than President Obama and his record of failure."

Newt chimed in, too. (Good for you, Newt!) "Rick Santorum is dead wrong. Any GOP nominee will be better than Obama," he Tweeted.

Gingrich and Santorum do share a new affection for the Etch-A-Sketch, which they have both used on campaign stops in last two days. Santorum held up the toy at the stop in Texas and said that his positions didn't change like the Etch-A-Sketch's lines. HuffPo reports that Santorum could be seen playing with the toy's knobs between questions from the crowd. Etch-A-Sketch stock rose 200 percent yesterday.