Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said Tuesday that President Obama’s re-election team told him privately that they didn’t want to face him in the general election in 2012.
“Look, I thought I could have won last time,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I’m convinced. You know I asked one of the Obama minions running the campaign ’Hey, why didn’t you guys help me? I was up there battling Romney and all these folks at MSNBC were saying, oh, wouldn’t this be great if Santorum were the nominee, why didn’t you help me? Why didn’t you go out and bang me a little a bit, hit me you know, as being too conservative, you know, help me out a little bit?’
“And the consensus was ’we didn’t want you’ because of this,” Mr. Santorum said, holding up a copy of his new book, “Blue Collar Conservatives.”
He relayed a story from the book about a conversation he said he had with GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s staff, who told him that among people who were going to vote in Pennsylvania, Mr. Santorum was up by five points among people who planned to vote before noon but down four among the noon-to-5 p.m. crowd.
“If you were going to vote after 5 I was up 21,” he said. “And that’s what the other side is scared to death of.”
Mr. Santorum said really the only reason he wouldn’t run again in 2016 is family considerations; he suspended his campaign in the spring of 2012 after his youngest daughter, Bella — who has a rare, life-threatening genetic disorder — became ill.
Mr. Santorum did say on “Morning Joe” that Bella, who will be six years old in two weeks, is “doing great” and that “she’s a miracle.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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