When the Republican field assembled last year, the early handicapping put Rick Santorum at the very bottom. A one-term Senator from Pennsylvania, he had been trounced in his for re-election campaign, had a string of hard, angry insensitive quotes about various groups he didn't like, had no money, and wasn't a skilled debater. Everyone dismissed him, including Mitt Romney.
So Tuesday he sweeps Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado, again upsetting the conventional analyses that had Romney sweeping toward inevitable victory. He's now won more states than any candidate. Something is up. 

The easy, and sensible, reason has more to do with Romney's failures than Santorum's virtues. After all the Republican electorate has rushed from Bachmann to Perry to Cain and to Gingrich only to fall back into the arms of the best-looking, best coiffed, and toothiest candidate, Mitt. There's clearly a deep distrust of Romney that's kept him at around a third of Republican voters, while the others divide the remaining two-thirds. Part of that is a strategic choice: Mitt chose to run against Obama rather than appeal to the hard-right base. Part of it is history: He really was pro-choice and pro-health care mandate at one time and that's tough to explain to the Tea Party. 

Campaigns are designed to work around such problems and Mitt probably can do so, just like Clinton or Reagan did. But there's something else at work, on a deeper level, that explains both Romney's weakness and Santorum's strength
Here's where Rick has the advantage over Mitt:


Here's where Mitt trumps Rick:

These disadvantages count a great deal. Rick has a narrow opening, and it would be a mistake to do what worked on Tuesday and hope it works again.Â
A long-shot candidate needs bold strokes, risky strokes. Break out of the routine of the campaign. Meet with the NAACP. Show up at a Romney staged event. Pick a vice president. Get Palin to endorse. In the midst of this somewhat shaky list of options is something that will work. But charm and sincerity won't be enough to beat Mitt.
 
The Republican campaign is increasingly being conducted in a small echo chamber, between candidates and a very narrow slice of the American people. That longer it goes on the more it will limit the chances of victory in November. But, even in these circumstances, it's heartening to see voters see through a lot of what campaigns are about and to remind the political class that character and authenticity matter. Now let's see if Rick can make the next move, and clinch the deal.
Follow Richard Brodsky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/richardbrodsky
Remember that in March, there lots of Southern states in play and that is where Newt is banking his money.
This is gonna get dragged until the convention and we Liberals will be happy
It appears to me that this is a party that is clearly operating in the self-destruct mode.
The man lost his seat in congress by 17%.
He can't even carry his own state.
"That longer it goes on the more it will limit the chances of victory in November."
That's my hope (and you can keep the change).
Meanwhile Mr. "Say Anything" Romney will probably end up getting the nod after much further contentious and brutal mud slinging and possibly a brokered convention thanks to either Gingrich or Paul. Whoever wins it the Dems will have fantastic highlight reels of rediculous quotes.
We need whoever wins to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why? - Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street and CEOs promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?
The protectionism needed to encourage companies to continue manufacturing in the US will do little in the long term. Here in Australia they just stopped giving the Aluminium smelters subsidies that were in place for about 20 years. As soon as the rebate stops, they are threatening to shut down. They haven't invested, they haven't planned, they just milked the govt dry. The key to getting America working again isn't redistributing tax dollars to bribe the big manufacturers to stay, the key is to retrain the workforce to work in sectors with a better long term outlook.