On Thursday GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum stated that re-electing President Barack Obama would be better than having Republican rival Mitt Romney in the White House.

Many are calling Santorum’s recent comment the harshest one to date,as Santorum claims Romney and Obama are one in the same.

“You win by giving people a choice. You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there,” Santorum said in front of a crowd in San Antonio, Texas.

 ”If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future,” Santorum added.

Santorum was referencing the recent comments made by Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s adviser on The Cable News Network.

“Everything changes,” Fehrnstrom said on CNN referring to Romney’s strategy to win the Independents after GOP primaries are over. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”

This after a growing concern by the Romney Camp, that Mitt was being perceived as a “moderate candidate” rather than a “conservative candidate.”

Santorum’s camp later explained the remarks claiming he didn’t mean to imply that voters would be better off re-electing Obama over Romney, but emphasized that Americans need options.

“You’ve got to have differences to motivate people to vote,” said Hogan Gidley to Yahoo News.

Gidley, Santorum’s spokesman added that “if there’s virtually no difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, chances are they won’t go out and vote.”

Since the “Etch a Sketch” comment stock shares in Ohio Art have skyrocketed. The toy makers stock reached $9.65 on Thursday and at one point reached a daily high of $12.50.

Since the verbal blunder on CNN and Santorum’s attack, Romney’s is doing damage control.

“Any of the Republicans” would be better than Obama, Romney responded in a statement.

“I was disappointed to hear that Rick Santorum would rather have Barack Obama as president than a Republican. This election is more important than any one person. It is about the future of America,” Romney added.