Santorum compares Romney to Dukakis, Gore, Kerry and McCain

Rick Santorum has sent out a fundraising email comparing Mitt Romney to Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry and John McCain, four party standard-bearers who argued they were the most electable candidate in the primary but lost in the general election.

"Americans have been down this road before," Santorum writes in a fundraising email sent out by nationalteapartyalert.com. "At various times both parties nominated boring candidates because they were considered 'electable.' In every one of those cases, they weren't electable at all. Now Republicans are again thinking about nominating another bland and boring candidate for President — Mitt Romney. If we don't love our candidate, how can we expect Democrats and Independents to?"

The email then argues that Romney must be stopped in South Carolina, and that Santorum is the only conservative who can do so.

The less than flattering comparisons mirror what many anti-Romney conservatives have argued in the past months: that they need to nominate someone who is to the right of the former Massachusetts governor in order to have the best chance against President Obama.