MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum may not have done particularly well in New Hampshire — at press time, he and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were still locked in an Iowa-like tight battle for the honor of fourth place — but he knew that going in. And he still showed up.
That was the message of Santorum’s Granite State concession speech, after the race was called for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney just minutes after the polls closed.
“We wanted to respect the process here,” Santorum told a small crowd of supporters (and a large crowd of reporters) at his election night party. “We wanted to respect the fact that we were going to campaign in every single state — states that, you know, were good for us, and states that maybe were a little tougher.”
The message was evidently crafted to counter suggestions that Santorum had under-performed in New Hampshire despite the momentum from his near-win in the Iowa caucuses.
It was also an implicit jab at Texas Governor Rick Perry, who flew straight to South Carolina after Iowa, bypassing New Hampshire completely.
Perry, Santorum implied, just wanted to win, while he was principled and willing to take some hits in order to communicate the importance of families and the need to create equal opportunities for all groups in society.
He also went after Romney, who has now won the first two nominating contests and is the undisputed front-runner, suggesting that his win in New Hampshire was expected and not particularly impressive, and taking a stab at him on the question of electability.
Before offering Romney his congratulations, Santorum chided “those who would like to think that somehow or another this race can be over in two or three states, states that have been — well, lets say the backyard of the home of a certain candidate.” (RELATED: Full coverage of Rick Santorum’s campaign)
The former senator also argued that he was not only electable — an adjective many have applied to Romney — but also a principled conservative who could win by running on those principles. And his pro-family, blue collar message, he insisted, could help Republicans lock up the crucial swing states in November.
“We have a message that can appeal not just in South Carolina, but across this nation and, in particular, in the states that are necessary for us to win this election,” he said Tuesday night, “in the states that are the swing states, like Pennsylvania and Ohio and Indiana and Michigan, in the states that I’ve been successful, like in Pennsylvania, at winning elections.”
Santorum once again brought up his coal-mining grandfather whose story played an important role in the his emotional Iowa speech, to brush off his poor performance at the polls Tuesday.
“Let me assure you, he was not deterred by some temporary setbacks. He believed in the greatness of this country and he believed in the freedom of opportunity that this country represented.”
“We are gonna go on to South Carolina,” Santorum said, to hoots and hollers from the crowd.