Santorum says Tuesday's loss was a win

POWELL, Tenn., Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum, on the campaign trial in Tennessee, said his narrow loss in the Michigan primary actually was a win for him.

"This is a huge win for us," Santorum told reporters after a speech in Powell, Politico reported. "We went into his backyard. [Mitt Romney] spent a fortune, money he had no intention of spending, and we came out of there with the same number of delegates he does. We are in great shape going into this election. We are excited about what's going to happen on Super Tuesday" next week.

Romney and Santorum each captured 15 delegates in Michigan Tuesday although Romney won a 3 percentage point margin in the popular vote. Romney also trounced Santorum soundly in Arizona.

Santorum's chief strategist John Brabender also called Romney's narrow Michigan win a development that "can only be seen as a disaster" for Romney given the money and time the former Massachusetts governor invested in his state, Politico reported.

"We believe we can play in almost every single Super Tuesday state," Brabender said. "We are on TV in all but I think one or two [states]. We've made trips to almost all of them," he told reporters in a conference call. "I think our ability to play in many of those states is already there with empirical data, and we intend to be very aggressive in doing that."