Rick Santorum isn’t mincing words in his campaign around Florida – “I can go toe to toe with Obama. I can defeat Obama.” Santorum said to a cheering crowd in Coral Springs, Florida today.
Outside the popular Wings Plus restaurant, Santorum addressed a cheering crowd of over 200 attendees, and made it clear that his 3rd place finish in South Caro
lina was not going to be the norm.
“We’ve had three races. One in Mitt Romney’s backyard in the state of New Hampshire. He has a home in New Hampshire; he has campaigned there for six years. Last night we had a race in South Carolina right across the border from where Newt Gingrich was and pretty much his backyard and where he staked his claim, and they were able to win in their backyard,” Santorum continued “Well, there was one race that was in nobody’s backyard. There was one race that you had to go out and run a level playing field and compete, and we won that race.” His reference to his campaign’s victory in Iowa met with applause and cheers from the attendees.
There were several other times in his approximately 50 minute address, where Santorum took swipes at both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. When referencing Mitt Romney, he spoke on the former Governor’s record “You look at the record of someone who was the governor of Massachusetts and, well, didn’t necessarily govern all that conservatively…” With Gingrich, the former Senator called Newt’s conservativism into question by proxy “You look at someone who was speaker of the House, and again, these are friends, I know they are good people, but when Newt was speaker of the House, well, within three years the conservatives within the House of Representatives tried to throw him out, and in the fourth year they did. Why? Because he wasn’t governing as a conservative,” Santorum said. “He didn’t live up to all the hype.”
When speaking about his own record, Santorum called himself a “conservative firebrand” who other Republicans went to when they needed a hand with legislation. He lauded the efforts he made while he was serving in office – “We were the ones standing up and fighting” and stating “I was the GO-TO guy.”
Santorum also spoke on the threat that Israel faces with if Iran is allowed to produce nuclear weapons, and put Iran on notice that under a Santorum Presidency his message would be simple regarding their development or assembly of a nuclear weapon: “Dismantle it, or we will dismantle it for you”.
The Former senator advised the attendees that people should view this election seriously, and that the election would be pivotal in the history of the United States. If the enthusiasm of the crowd was any indicator, Santorum’s words stoked a fire already burning in the hearts of many Floridians.
His speech was fluid and relaxed, giving no sign of a slow-down after the 3rd place finish in South Carolina.
Santorum hit on issues of key importance to area voters such as Israel and as he mentioned early in his speech, TRUST. “Trust is a big issue in this election. Who do you trust who is going to do what they say they are going to do?”
Florida and the country are going to have the opportunity to make that decision of “who to trust” in the coming weeks and months. Former Senator Rick Santorum’s appearance and speech today demonstrated that he is willing to provide another choice for American voters. With the Florida Primary nine days away, Santorum has the opportunity to heat up the Republican primary race further by securing a victory in the Sunshine state.
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