Santorum attacks Romney’s big business background
REPUBLICAN candidates for their party’s presidential nomination clashed in a fractious debate over the weekend as polls showed Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney maintaining a clear lead in New Hampshire, the next state to vote.
During the debate, Romney was forced to defend his background in finance when rival Rick Santorum said: “Business experience doesn’t necessarily match up with being the commander-in-chief of this country. The commander-in-chief is not a CEO.”
Romney responded: “People who spend their life in Washington don’t understand what happens in the real economy. People who start businesses… those people are leaders.”
Santorum, a former senator for Pennsylvania, lost the Iowa primary to Romney by just eight votes, but a recent poll on Friday by Suffolk University showed him on a mere eight per cent in New Hampshire, versus Romney’s 40 per cent.
Texas congressman Ron Paul, who scored 17 per cent in the Suffolk University poll, accused his rivals of favouring more state spending. “You’re a big spender, a big government conservative,” he told Santorum. He also accused former congressman Newt Gingrich of refusing to serve in the army during the Vietnam war.