Santorum credits winning run to conservatism

Washington: Republican Rick Santorum is looking to capitalise on a string of stunning victories that snapped his four-state losing streak and raised new questions about front-runner Mitt Romney's clout with conservatives.

Santorum cast the results as a victory for a purer form of conservatism than Romney has offered, heard more clearly by voters across the nation's middle class without a deafening TV air war that the former Massachusetts governor has dominated.

Former Pennsylvania senator Santorum said in a nationally broadcast interview yesterday that he thinks conservative Republicans "are beginning to get" that he represents the party's best chance to oust President Barack Obama.

Romney's losses in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday came just when it looked as if his party was beginning to embrace him.

Santorum scoffed at Romney's criticism of his defeat for re-election to the Senate, saying, "a lot of folks lose races, but I didn't lose, like Gov Romney, my principles. I wasn't a well-oiled weather vane."

Santorum said he wants to make Obama "the issue in this race," not Romney and Gingrich. He said: "He [Obama] believes he's the smartest guy in the country and he should tell people what to believe and how to live their lives."

Santorum also said, "Mitt Romney is saying I'm not a conservative. I mean, that's laughable."