Rick Santorum predicted Monday that if he is able to prevent Mitt Romney from earning the 1,144 delegates necessary to sew up the GOP nomination, he would be the choice of Republicans at the national convention this summer in Tampa.
"We're going to see very shortly that the conservative in this race is going to rise … if we go to the convention, this is a conservative party," Santorum said on NBC's "Today Show."
The former senator said Republicans would balk at nominating a candidate who has thus far been unable to deliver a "knockout blow" in the race.
"What chance to do we have in the general election if, with his overwhelming financial advantage, he can't deal a knockout blow?" Santorum asked.
Santorum went on to say that the calendar would come to favor his campaign, pivoting away from Romney's "three home states" and contests where Romney had the opportunity to build up his organization beforehand.
"We're going to move to states where I'm going to have much more of an advantage," Santorum said. "The issue is not math, the issue is vision."
Santorum also criticized President Obama over his Afghanistan policy in the aftermath of a brutal shooting rampage by an American soldier that left at least 16 civilians dead. The White House hopeful said that Obama's policy of providing a timeline for withdrawal made repairing relations in the aftermath of the shooting more difficult.
"We have an emboldened Taliban, one that's waiting it out, and certainly taking advantage of the mistakes or horrible act of violence that were committed by a single troop — it undermines our ability to be successful, which has already been undermined by the president's policies," Santorum said.
Santorum went on to call the shooting spree "disturbing" and "shocking," and said Obama should decide between either exiting Afghanistan immediately or committing to continuing the war effort without a definitive timetable.
"My position is that we should commit to be successful, but if the president's is not — that commitment … then I don't see any reason why we should continue to hold on to an artificial date that is obviously not working for us," Santorum said.
