Northfield, N.H.
We now have a glimpse at how Mitt Romney’s campaign plans to handle Rick Santorum’s challenge. In Iowa, when it first became apparent that Santorum was on the move, Romney tried to label him a career politician. “Like Speaker Gingrich, Senator Santorum has spent his career in government, in Washington—nothing wrong with that, but it is a very different background than I have.”
Today, the Romney campaign sent Sen. John McCain out to field-test a different line. Here’s McCain on CNN this morning: “I respect Senator Santorum. He and I had very strong differences on earmarking and pork barrel spending. I believe that earmarking is a gateway drug to corruption. Senator Santorum supported it and engaged in it as much as he possibly could. I strongly disagreed with it. That was a fundamental difference we had in the Senate.”
