Mitt Romney's been called a flip-flopper throughout his presidential campaign, but when Jay Leno gave him an opening to throw the same criticism at Rick Santorum Tuesday, he didn't take it.
He did joke, however, that Santorum might be a better press secretary than running mate.
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Romney seemed unusually relaxed during his "Tonight Show" appearance, as his and Leno's shared middle-of-the-road quality helped them settle them into a kind of comfort zone. Leno provided an occasional goofy foil to the straitlaced Romney, as when he joked that they had talked about porn backstage.
Leno noted that Santorum last week called Romney the worst candidate to campaign against Obama — but also said he would be willing to be his running mate.
Romney, in conciliatory mode, said he didn't hold Santorum's remarks against him. Santorum is trying to sew up three-fourths of the remaining delegates to grab the Republican presidential nomination from Romney.
"You're on all the time when you're running for president," Romney said. "Everything you say is being followed by a small camera of some kind that someone has. You don't always get every word just right. And so you have to give people a little bit of slack, I think. And in this case, Rick Santorum's a good guy, he's running a good campaign. We have some differences in background and differences on some issues but basically a good guy and I'm happy with him saying he'd like to be part of an administration with me. If he's the VP, that's better."
At another point in the interview, however, Leno asked Romney to assess potential running mates in a word or two. When Leno got to Santorum's name, Romney said "press secretary" — a joke about Santorum's bluntness.
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