While he congratulated Romney on his victory in the state, Santorum also argued that he did better than Romney in the “areas that conservatives and Republicans populate.” 
 
 Santorum called this race the most important since 1860, telling the crowd, “You know in your gut that big things are adrift and at stake in this election.” 
 
 Romney’s speech was all about Obama; Santorum’s was all about Romney. “There was one [candidate] who said ‘I know this isn’t climate science, this is political science,’” Santorum said. But I also want to say -- I just want to thank all of the folks in Illinois, all in the -- you know, if you look at what -- what’s going to happen tonight, we’re going to win downstate, we’re going to win central Illinois, we’re going to win western Illinois. “Hundreds of thousands of people have joined millions of people around the country to join our cause,” he said. In the last 24 hours, the Illinois fight took a sharply confrontational turn after Santorum said at a campaign stop that he didn’t “care what the unemployment rate’s going to be” — a comment intended to convey that his whole campaign doesn’t rest on economic statistics. Santorum plans to speak tonight from Gettysburg, Pa., while Gingrich has been campaigning in Louisiana ahead of Saturday’s primary there.
– 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."