Is Rick Santorum cheating in Michigan? Or is Mitt Romney just whining? (+video)

At least, that’ s what it says on the copy of the call captured by a Michigan voter and posted online at Talking Points Memo.

At the end of the call funded by a pro-Santorum super PAC, the reader – a woman this time – says simply, “Paid for by Freedom’s Defense Fund.” Most Michigan voters aren’t going to know who that organization is linked to.

Plus, the ads mislead due to what they leave out. Both are centered on the fact that Romney opposed the auto bailout – a big negative in Michigan. The call from the Santorum campaign adds that Romney did support the financial bailout, while appearing willing to bury GM and Chrysler.

“That was a slap in the face to every Michigan voter,” says the robocall.

What the call does not say is that Santorum opposed the auto bailout, too. He has defended this position in Michigan by noting that unlike Romney he also opposed the financial bailout, so he’s the consistent conservative, while Romney just didn’t like Detroit. But if Santorum included that context on the call, we’re pretty sure most of the Democrats on the other end would just hang up.

Will the calls work? It’s possible. But Santorum may have given Romney a ready-made excuse if he loses in Michigan, while muddying his own message, according to conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin.

“In his anxiousness to try and pull in a few Democratic voters, Santorum has undercut his own self-description as the most Republican of the Republican candidates and conveyed a certain desperation,” Rubin wrote on her Right Turn blog Tuesday.

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