Santorum Rips Big Money 'Machine' in Ill. Defeat

Rick Santorum has made it clear that he's sticking around despite his resounding defeat in Illinois. In a rambling election night speech in Gettysburg, he described this year's election as the most important since 1860, urged supporters to "saddle up, like Reagan did in the cowboy movies," and predicted a big win in Louisiana's primary on Saturday, reports the Washington Post. Speaking to Fox News, he blamed the Illinois loss on being outspent heavily in the Chicago media market, and said he didn't think super PACs should exist.

In Chicago, "which has 70% of the population of the state of Illinois, we got outspent 21 to 1. We feel like we are up there, running against the machine,” he said, adding that Illinois is a moderate state that elects moderate Republicans. Romney won, he said, because of a super PAC funded by his billionaire friends. A Romney spokeswoman said Santorum complaining about being outspent was "like a basketball team complaining that they lost to another team because their players are too tall," Politico reports. "That’s just ridiculous," she said. "This is all part of the game." (More Rick Santorum stories.)