Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) attacked his GOP presidential rival, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), over her last-minute bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties.
"I respect the fact that she's trying to get around, but we did a courtship, we didn't speed date," he said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa according to Yahoo! News. "We went out and talked to folks and had coffee with folks and sat with them and answered their questions. We spent, what, an hour and 20 minutes here. You know, we didn't sort of run in and say, 'Hi, I'm great, vote for me.' I don't think that's what Iowans are looking for."
Santorum has made far more campaign stops in Iowa than any other candidate -- 249 to Bachmann's 190, according to the Washington Post. A CNN/Time poll released Wednesday showed Santorum's campaigning paying off, with him placing third in Iowa with 16 percent behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul at 25 and 22 percent, respectively.
Bachmann started a bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties on Dec. 16. Tuesday she had 10 scheduled events. She was running late by mid-evening by nearly an hour, forcing crowds to listen to surrogates while she made shorter-than-expected appearances, according to the Des Moines Register.
Bachmann lost her Iowa campaign chairman, Kent Sorenson, Wednesday, who said that she is not a "top tier" candidate. He is now supporting Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas.)