Santorum Now Has to Slay Two Monsters

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Elspeth Reeve 2,159 Views Feb 15, 2012

Rick Santorum now has to fight two Goliaths -- the well-financed Mitt Romney and the inconceivably loaded Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire backing Newt Gingrich who has decided to take Santorum out. Romney has already spent 20 times the money Santorum has on ads in Michigan. Now Adelson is considering another $10 million donation to aid Gingrich to do that, The Wall Street Journal's Alicia Mundy and Alexandra Berzon report. Adelson isn't switching sides to Romney, they write, but he'd rather the former Massachusetts governor be the nominee than Santorum, whose social conservatism he doesn't like. That fact should make for nice fodder for Santorum's little-crusade-that-could narrative.

Like Gingrich, Santorum apparently thinks complaining about being attacked by Romney and his super PAC is a winning issue, but unlike Gingrich, he's not quite so whiney about it. Santorum has a new ad in Michigan in which a Romney lookalike tries to mow down a cardboard cutout of Santorum with a machine gun loaded with mud, Politico's Mike Allen reports. Romney was asked about the ad on Fox News Wednesday morning -- and forced to watch it in split screen. He replied, "My campaign hasn't run any negative ads against Rick Santorum." Which is true, technically, as The Hill's Christian Heinze points out, but Romney's super PAC sure has.

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