Strickland criticizes Romney, Gingrich

January 23, 2012 at 4:24p.m.

Ex-Gov. Ted Strickland sharply criticized Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, the two leading Republican presidential candidates, but praised Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who’s also seeking the GOP nomination.

Also, Strickland, a Democrat who lost a re-election bid in 2010 to Republican John Kasich, said today he discussed Ohio politics and manufacturing during a private one-on-one lunch last week at the White House with President Barack Obama.

Strickland, who visited at the request of the president, said he told Obama, a Democrat, that he needs to discuss plans to “revitalize manufacturing in America and to create for our country what every one of our competitors has, a specific policy, an industrial policy, to protect American jobs, products and the economy.”

For the complete story, read Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com