Romney targets Obama; Santorum rips rival

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- An increasingly confident Mitt Romney called President Barack Obama an "economic lightweight" yesterday as the Republican presidential candidate looked beyond today's Illinois primary to a general election showdown.

Romney's chief rival -- Rick Santorum -- kept his focus on the GOP front-runner, arguing that nominating the former Massachusetts governor would deprive the party of a defining issue to use against Obama in the November election -- health care.

"Obamacare," Santorum said, was based on "Romneycare," Massachusetts' 2006 health care law.

Courting voters in Obama's home state, Romney acknowledged that the economy was moving in the right direction as hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created, the unemployment rate has dropped and consumer confidence has jumped. Romney suggested it was despite the president.

"The economy always comes back after a recession of course," said Romney, previewing what could be a general election argument. "There's never been one that we didn't recover from. The problem is this one has been deeper than it needed to be and a slower recovery than it should have been."

The former venture capitalist said he's better equipped to steer the economy. "There are dramatic differences between me and President Obama," Romney said during a morning campaign stop at Charlie Parker's diner in Springfield. "I'm not an economic lightweight. President Obama is."

Romney extended his delegate lead Sunday in Puerto Rico, where he trounced Santorum and scored all 20 of the Caribbean island's delegates. Romney has collected more delegates than his opponents combined and is poised to win Illinois.