ATLANTIC, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took a subtle swipe Sunday at rival Rick Santorum for being a Washington insider during a campaign stop at a local diner.
“I can tell you that our backgrounds are quite different,” Romney said in response to a question from a reporter at the Family Table Restaurant. “Like Speaker Gingrich, Senator Santorum has spent his career in government in Washington.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” he said. “It’s a very different background than I have.”
Romney’s willingness to differentiate himself from Santorum shows how fellow 2012 presidential contenders are taking the former Pennsylvania senator’s recent surge in the Hawkeye State seriously.
The Des Moines Register released a poll Saturday showing Santorum rising from the back of the pack into third place in Iowa. The caucuses — the first nominating contest of the 2012 election — are set for Tuesday across Iowa.
Romney, a former business executive and governor of Massachusetts, went on to say that “the people of this country recognize that with our economy as the major issue we face right now, it would be helpful to have someone who understands the economy first hand.”
He also said Santorum is a friend who “was kind enough to endorse me last time around.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him do well on Tuesday night,” he said.
Dozens of reporters and Iowans packed into the restaurant to hear Romney, who arrived at the event with his wife in his campaign bus.