Romney predicts he and Santorum will campaign together [Video]

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

A day after his main rival for the GOP nomination dropped out, Mitt Romney said Wednesday that the general election against President Obama has begun.

“The campaign started yesterday, the general election campaign,” he said, answering a question on Fox News about how he would move his high unfavorable ratings among voters who view him as “out of touch.” “We have some time ahead, seven months in the general election campaign. So … people will get to know me better and they’ll get to know [Obama] better as well. And they’ll look at his record, which ultimately is the record upon which a campaign is going to be waged. But the person I’m out of touch with is Barack Obama. I’m in touch with the American people who want to see good jobs and rising incomes. They recognize this president has failed them.”

Romney said he would soon start vetting potential running mates.

“I don’t have a list yet,” he said. “… we will begin sorting through the possibilities. But there’s a large number of people who are extraordinary leaders including some of those who I’ve run in this last contest with.”

Romney was speaking less than 24 hours after rival Rick Santorum suspended his presidential bid, a move that effectively ended the GOP nomination battle and allows Romney to focus fully on Obama.

Santorum has not endorsed anyone, but Romney predicted they would campaign together in the fall.

“You’ll see us all come together in a powerful way, but the time for that will happen down the road as we spend more time together and hit the trail together,” he said. “… You will see our part more united than it’s been in a long, long time in part because President Obama has taken America in such a different course than we have ever gone as a nation before.”

Romney spoke out against the so-called Buffett Rule that the president was promoting Wednesday morning, which would require people earning $1 million or more a year to pay at least the same income tax rate as middle-class families. The proposal is named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has famously complained that his secretary pays a higher tax rate them he does.

“You know he’s really trying to divert from the failure of his record which is that he has not created jobs, he has lost 800,000 jobs during his presidency,” Romney said before repeating a claim that over 92% of the jobs lost were held by woman – a statement that PolitiFact has rated “mostly false.” “His policies have been really a war on women and so he wants to divert from that and see if we can’t find someone to attack, some scapegoat,” Romney said.

For the record, 9:53 a.m. April 11: A previous version of this post referred to the Buffett Rule as the Buffet Rule.

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Original source: Romney predicts he and Santorum will campaign together [Video]