FOXNews.com: Romney Hoping to Put Santorum on Last Legs

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Romney Hoping to Put Santorum on Last Legs Apr 3rd 2012, 23:59 Voters are going to the polls Tuesday in GOP primaries in Maryland, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia with front-runner Mitt Romney looking for big wins -- or even a sweep – as he tries to close out the Republican race. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has increasingly begun to focus on the general election and a matchup against President Obama, who is seeking a second term. "The president is consumed with finding someone to blame. This is an economy that hurt at lot of people (including) single moms -- single moms living in poverty," Romney said Tuesday morning on Fox News.  Romney and his three Republican rivals, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, have spent most of the past two weeks in Wisconsin, a Midwest swing state that has 42 delegates up for grabs and in 2008 voted from Obama. Romney's wife, Ann Romney, recently has taken a more prominent role in campaigning as the primary races near a close in June and the party holds its nominating convention in August in Tampa, Fla. Romney said voters have been telling his wife that their No. 1 concern is the economy, in particular good jobs for themselves and family members. He also said women have expressed concern about high gasoline prices. Romney made the remarks one day after Obama did a video for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in which he suggested Republicans are playing politics with women's health issues. "Let's be clear here — women are not an interest group," the president said in the video. Romney's messages also serve double duty as a subtle push to Santorum, his closest competitor who has pledged to continue campaigning until Romney wins the presidential nomination. If Romney wins the nomination, he would face a better-organized, better-financed campaign backed by the power of the presidency. "He gets full credit or blame for what's happened in this economy, and what's happened to gasoline prices under his watch, and what's happened to our schools, and what's happened to our military forces," Romney told supporters gathered at a sandwich shop in Waukesha, Wis. "All these things are his responsibility while he's president." Obama, addressing an annual meeting of the Associated Press on Tuesday, poked at Romney for calling Republican Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's budget "marvelous." He also assailed the Republican Party as extreme. "I think it'd be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan's budget and to adopt it and pass it along to the president," Romney told Wisconsin voters in a telephone town hall meeting last Wednesday. Marvelous, Obama said, "is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget." Obama's re-election campaign is also running a new TV ad in six swing states criticizing the former Massachusetts governor by name for the first time - in this case as a backer of "Big Oil" amid high gas prices. Romney responded Tuesday by accusing the president of trying to shift blame for the bad economy. "The president put an ad out yesterday, talking about gasoline prices and how high they are. And guess who he blamed? Me," Romney said after handing out ham, turkey and Italian subs to supporters. "Maybe after I'm president I can take responsibility for things I might have done wrong. But this president doesn't want to take responsibility for his mistakes." Romney made one campaign stop before an election night party in Milwaukee. He spent the weekend campaigning across Wisconsin, accompanied by Ryan and working to win yet another big industrial state that Santorum was counting on to keep his flagging candidacy alive. Santorum was spending the day in Texas at private fundraisers for his campaign before heading to his home state of Pennsylvania for an election night party in Mars, a community just north of Pittsburgh. Romney has 572 delegates to the Republican National Convention, half the needed 1,144, and is on a pace to clinch the nomination by the end of the primary season in June. Santorum has 272 delegates, Newt Gingrich 135 and Ron Paul 51. Romney is expected to win in Maryland because most Republicans are considered centrists or moderates in the strongly Democratic state, where 37 delegates are up for grabs. Nineteen delegates are available in the District, where Santorum is not on the ballot. Romney has ignored Santorum the past few days to focus on Obama. Obama's ad claims that "Mitt Romney's stood with Big Oil - for their tax breaks, attacking higher mileage standards and renewables." The ad is in response to a spot from the American Energy Alliance blaming Obama for rising gas prices. Romney's campaign, though, is running far behind the president in fundraising, as he's been unable to raise general election money because the primary contest is still going on. At the end of February, Obama reported $84.7 million in his campaign account compared with Romney's $7.3 million. Obama has more than 530 paid staff compared to roughly 100 for Romney. Santorum, who also campaigned in Wisconsin on Monday, said Romney has essentially bought his success by spending more than the competition. Romney and his allies have spent $53 million on TV advertising so far this election cycle compared to $27 million from his three Republican competitors combined, according to data compiled by the media tracking firm SMG Delta. Santorum's team, having narrowly lost a string of high-profile contests, spent just $9 million. "With almost unlimited resources, Governor Romney has not proven to be very effective," Santorum said as he looked to a possible upset in Wisconsin. "The only way he's been successful in winning the primaries is by just bludgeoning his opponents by an overwhelming money advantage - something he's not going to have in the general election." The Associate Press contributed to this report. Related Stories On primary day, Obama lambastes GOP budget plan as 'Trojan horse' Candidates make push ahead of Wisconsin primary

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