GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan -- Rick Santorum told reporters today at his Grand Rapids field office that the lightweight in the Republican race isn't him, as Mitt Romney said today -- it's Romney himself.
"I don’t know what that means," Santorum said when reporters asked him what he thought of Romney calling him an "economic lightweight" earlier today.
"No, I’m not a heavyweight. I’m not a multimillionaire. I’m someone who's gone out and worked hard and learned my economics from shining shoes and setting up conference centers and learning how entrepreneurs and people from the bottom up are trying to build businesses," Santorum said.
A few minutes after stating that he wasn't a heavyweight, Santorum said "I am the heavyweight in this race when it comes to moving this country in a conservative direction."
He called Romney "a lightweight on conservative accomplishments."
Santorum also dismissed the idea that the race has become overly negative, telling the press that "We haven’t run the negative campaign here. We’ve run a very overwhelmingly positive campaign. We've run overwhelmingly positive ads in every place we've gone."