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Coming off a decisive victory in Saturday night's Louisiana primary, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is blasting Mitt Romney's campaign as "desperate" and lacking in message - and one that will be unable to effectively go head-to-head with President Obama come November. Santorum, in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," contended on Sunday that Republican voters want to elect a nominee who has "their principles written on their heart - not on an erasable tablet."

After spending at least $66 million largely to pound his Republican primary opponents into submission during an unexpectedly long primary, Mitt Romney needs money. That's why his GOP presidential campaign is diverting to California for two days of private fundraisers this week, including a Monday stop in Redwood City. Only one public campaign event, in San Diego, has been scheduled.

NBC: Santorum Wins La. Primary By Significant Margin Sean Gardner / REUTERS Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum signs placards as he greets supporters at a Get Out The Vote rally in Mandeville, Louisiana March 21, 2012. By Michael O'Brien Rick Santorum’s campaign netted a victory Saturday night in Louisiana, where NBC News projected he’d won that state’s GOP primary by a significant margin. The win sparks hope of a campaign rebound, following Santorum’s lopsided losses to Mitt Romney in the Illinois and Puerto Rico primaries. The former Massachusetts governor finished second and Newt Gingrich third in...

When To Start Watching: Polls will close for the Louisiana Republican primary at 8 p.m. CDT (9 p.m. EDT). Results will begin to come in around 8:30 p.m. CDT. What's At Stake: Twenty of the state's 46 delegates are up for grabs Saturday, divided proportionately among all candidates who receive more than 25 percent of the vote in the state. Louisiana hosts a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans may vote for the four candidates in the GOP contest.

Support for Mitt Romney among Republican voters nationwide has jumped to 40 percent, according to a new Gallup poll released Friday.

Polls show Rick Santorum likely will win the Louisiana Republican presidential primary -snip-

Rick Santorum looked for a win in Louisiana's primary Saturday to sustain his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. The former Pennsylvania senator badly needed a rebound after a decisive loss to front-runner Mitt Romney earlier in the week that moved party stalwarts to rally around the former Massachusetts governor and urge Santorum to drop out of the race. -snip- Even before polls opened Saturday, Romney was looking past the results and toward the general election.

There are many things that need to be done on a Saturday. Take the car in to be fixed. Watch the kid play soccer. And, if you live in Louisiana, go vote for who you want to become president. A sojourn at some polls here, though, indicated that many people had more important things to do on Saturday than vote. In a lush field next to a polling station, Michael Nash, 38, was watching his young son swing at a ball on a T-ball stand. He was planning to vote, sure, but he wanted to spend some time with his...

It is easy to understand why last week’s Etch a Sketch moment was described as the perfect metaphor for a presidential candidate who has struggled to answer the question of who he is and what he believes. It was a gaffe that fed a stereotype that shapes the political image of Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney got the next best thing Friday to an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, he got validation. "I think Mitt Romney is a conservative and if he's president, he'll govern as a conservative," Toomey, R-Pa., told reporters after a speech to the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, the annual gathering of conservatives in the state. Toomey made his mark in Washington hunting down and replacing Republican moderates in Congress with Republican conservatives as president of Club for Growth, a powerful anti-tax group. A tea party kingmaker, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also affirmed Romney's conservatism after meeting with him Thursday...

-snip- Although Fehrnstrom is one of Romney’s longest-serving aides, he, like his boss, has no roots in the conservative movement. Fehrnstrom started out as a reporter covering alderman meetings in Boston and lives in liberal Brookline, Mass. His work as a GOP operative has been confined to New England — a region, as he often notes, that’s “pretty rocky terrain for Republicans.” To some influential conservatives, Fehrnstrom is an enigma. It’s not that conservatives don’t trust him. It’s that some don’t even know him. “I’ve never heard of him. I’ve been going to conservative meetings since I was knee-high to...

It is typical of Mitt Romney's luck that, on the morning after he all but secured the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign became embroiled in a controversy over a 1950s plastic toy. On Wednesday, hours after Romney's 12-point victory over Rick Santorum in the Illinois primary silenced most of the remaining doubters, senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom went on CNN and gave new meaning to the term "game change."

Seamus the Irish setter may have died years ago, but the now-infamous story of his rooftop ride has been more firmly cemented into the narrative of the 2012 campaign than his retaliatory excrement was plastered to the back window of the Romney family station wagon during that fateful trip 20 years ago. The Santorum campaign has referenced Mitt Romney’s treatment of his dog Seamus four times over the past week as an anecdote that purportedly calls into question the former governor’s character. -snip- “If you can’t be nice to your dog, who are you going to be nice to?”

-snip- Romney’s enduring lack of appeal is again making headlines anew, as politicos ponder new favourability ratings that suggest Romney may well be the most unpopular likely presidential nominee ever. -snip- That enthusiasm gap extends even to Romney’s own supporters in Illinois, where one prominent backer, former GOP congressman Bob Michel, openly lamented the absence of breakaway momentum for Romney. “He’s not overwhelming, that’s the problem through this whole damn primary,” Michel told Politico. “What’s the spark? What’s the thing that gets him off and running? No one knows.”

Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) defended Mitt Romney on Sunday, amid concerns the GOP frontrunner is failing to rally the party’s conservative base and may fall short of the delegates needed to win the nomination outright. McCain, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Romney was aware that he needed to change his approach in order to close out the GOP presidential race.

Mitt Romney sounded an optimistic note Saturday as he wrapped up a quick but colorful campaign swing through Puerto Rico. -snip- "What a beautiful island. What a beautiful place," exclaimed Romney, who did not dance but clapped to the beat as he sat on stage for almost two hours. "What a wonderful culture you enjoy. What a wonderful people you are. Citizens of this great land. Citizens of America!"

Alabama's Republican governor has some advice for Mitt Romney the next time the former Massachusetts governor campaigns in the Deep South: Cut out the y'alls and references to "cheesy grits'' and be himself.

A candidate’s personal aide is normally told to remain quietly in the background. The so-called body man is supposed to be a constant, yet invisible, presence who is ready with a felt tip pen for autographs, prepared to operate any number of cameras, and knows what their boss wants to eat, and when. Garrett Jackson, who serves the role for Romney, can be seen in the background of numerous news photographs, usually with an earpiece surveying a crowd or guiding Romney to his next event (a rare exception was last week when Romney, in Jackson’s native Mississippi, told a crowd...

The long and increasingly messy Republican presidential contest is starting to hit Mitt Romney where it hurts most: his wallet. New signs of financial stress are emerging in Romney's campaign, which has built a wide lead in delegates thanks in part to the might of his bank account and multistate operation. As rival Rick Santorum's surprising strength keeps extending the nomination battle, Romney has scaled back expenses, trimmed field staff in some cases and begun to count more on free media coverage to reach voters. -snip- But it's less encouraging for the campaign that the money is badly needed to...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Friday defended GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney from critics who mocked him for calling himself an "unofficial Southerner" at a campaign stop the previous day. "Now they’re attacking Romney for joking about learning to say “y’all”? According to the left, no one can have a sense of humor - lighten up!" In Mississippi, Romney told the crowd that his bodyguard, a Mississippi native, was turning him into an "unofficial Southerner." "I'm learning to say 'y'all' and I like grits, and strange things are happening to me!" the former Massachusetts governor added. Critics were quick to...