Santorum Compares Romney To McCain, Urges GOP Not To 'bail Out' Rick Santorum, making his case for why he should stay in the uphill race against Mitt Romney, said Sunday that Republicans must not repeat the mistake of 2008 by prematurely nominating someone who can't win in November. Though Romney argues he's by far the toughest competitor to go up against President Obama, Santorum compared Romney to Sen. John McCain in 2008. He said Obama and Hillary Clinton battled into the summer, resulting in the "best candidate" for the Democrats, while Republicans decided, "We've got to wrap this thing up" and picked McCain as their nominee. "We came up with someone who ... wasn't able to win," Santorum said. We don't need to repeat that again. We don't need to bail out and not have the best candidate to take Barack Obama on in the fall.