The Santorum Surge

Could it really happen?

Could Rick Santorum be the Republican nominee?

Is God a Democrat?

Not to be mean, but early in this election season, Santorum was one of the funniest characters in the weekly Republican debate spoofs on "Saturday Night Live." He was the pontificating choirboy, earnest and entirely unpresidential. As hard as it was to see Rick Perry or Newt Gingrich as president, it was even harder to imagine Santorum surging — or his impersonator having a long shelf life on the show.

So what happened? Did Republicans everywhere suddenly wake up and discover that Santorum had the magic they'd been looking for? Did they suddenly realize that in the midst of difficult economic times, what Americans were looking for was a guy who thinks birth control is bad for women, and that America's economic problems could be solved by more religion in public life?

If you ask me, the Santorum surge has almost nothing to do with Santorum and everything to do with Mitt Romney. Or rather, with "not Romney." As in, who can conservatives vote for who is "not Romney"? At first, it looked like it might be Rick Perry, so Perry flew high until he crashed trying to remember that third Cabinet department. Then Gingrich got hot because he could remember Cabinet departments that existed 30 years ago, but he also had so much baggage that even his masterful attempts at damage control and deflection couldn't sustain his momentum.

That was the moment when the party was supposed to come together behind Romney. He won Florida. Even Donald Trump was impressed.

But a funny thing happened on the way to this summer's convention in Tampa. The smart money went to Romney, but the Republican ground troops and grassroots didn't follow. They went looking for someone else, and at least so far, their answer has been Santorum.

As far as I can tell, a lot of those supporting Santorum don't actually know that much about him. They can't detail his accomplishments or tell you where he stands on defense issues or what his plan is for the economy. They don't know exactly what to say about his support for earmarks, because who knew he supported them? This is what they do know: He is not a conservative-come-lately. He is, in short, not Romney.

Can a guy who thinks birth control is bad and intelligent design should be taught in school and who is not known for anything he's ever said or done about the economy really get elected president?

Would Republicans actually take the risk of nominating him?

Sure, it could happen. Christmas could come in November. Most of the smart Republicans I know shudder at the thought. The liberal blogs have just started digging for video on Santorum, and it isn't pretty. (Many married people, after all, also use birth control. Heck, so do a majority of Catholics, even if President Obama was naive, at best, to think he would be praised for requiring religious-affiliated institutions to provide it.) But stranger things have happened, which is why watching politics — if not always playing it — is such fun.

Obama is inching up to 50 percent, the magic number for an incumbent. Romney and Santorum are running neck and neck. It's one thing to have a primary season go all the way with a candidate who everyone knows can't win, a Jesse Jackson. It's one thing to have a primary season go all the way with two attractive and electable candidates who are supported, mostly with great congeniality, by the same wing of the party, say Hillary and Obama. But it's quite another when the contest is real and is being propelled not by the strengths of two attractive candidates but by the overwhelming reluctance of the base of the party to accept the guy who's supposed to win.

It's a dangerous situation for Republicans because Romney could be weakened in the process and, even more, because the "not Romney" could actually win. The word is that Democrats are beginning their opposition research on Santorum. Must be fun.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM

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Mitt Romney's plan to 'nuke Santorum': Will it work?

Team Romney plans to spend 29 times more than Santorum on ads in Michigan this week, and some politicos aren't sure Rick can withstand the barrage With GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum overtaking Mitt Romney in several national and statewide polls, the former Massachusetts governor is preparing to go after his conservative rival with a series of brutal attack ads. In an interview with Buzzfeed, a Romney advisor laid out the campaign's plans, which "may make previous attacks on Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich look like mere love taps." Romney will reportedly go after Santorum's lack of leadership experience, and will cast him as a longtime Washington insider. The ads will "hit very hard on earmarks, lobbying, [and] voting to raise the debt limit five times," the advisor said. In Michigan this week, Romney and his allied super PACs are set to spend 29 times more on ads than Santorum is. Will Mitt's plan to "nuke Santorum" work?

You betcha: This barrage could finally clear away "the last obstacle standing between Romney and the nomination," says No More Mister Nice Blog. "I didn't think Newt's fans were going to care much about ancient ethics charges in Congress," but then Romney launched his assault, and suddenly Gingrich's supporters began abandoning ship. Mitt has already proven that this is "a pretty effective technique." Santorum will have a hard time riding out the coming storm.
"Mitt Romney: The right's anti-propaganda machine"

Not so fast: Santorum isn't as vulnerable as Gingrich was, says Rachel Weiner at The Washington Post. Gingrich "is an opposition researcher's dream," with his messy personal life, past ethics violation, and history of flip-flopping on key issues. Santorum is "a far less polarizing candidate." And the attack pain laid out by Romney's aide — "earmarks, lobbying, [and] voting to raise the federal debt limit five times" — sounds awfully generic. Those lines "could be used against any former congressman."
"Can money stop Rick Santorum?"

This "incredibly lame" plan could actually hurt Romney: Mitt's onslaught could damage his electability, says Jed Lewison at Daily Kos. Even if he effectively "nukes Santorum" and bags the nomination merely because he's outlasted his competitors, he'll come off looking weak and unlikable. Plus, there's no guarantee that Romney will even be the one who benefits from a Santorum fall. Just as Santorum benefitted from Romney's attacks on Gingrich, Gingrich could reap the rewards this time around.
"Presenting Mitt Romney's (incredibly lame) plan to destroy Rick Santorum"

SEE MORE: The Romney revolt: Has the GOP base turned on him?

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Who is stronger against Obama: Santorum or Romney?

Rick Santorum has overtaken Mitt Romney in several GOP primary polls — but skeptics still aren't sold on the Pennsylvanian's ability to topple Obama in November For months, Mitt Romney has insisted to Republican voters that he's the candidate best equipped to beat President Obama in the fall. The polls backed him up, too, says Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen, "at least until now." This week, a series of surveys have shown Rick Santorum catching up with Romney, or even passing him, in national and statewide polls of the Republican field. And for the first time, a new survey from PPP finds that Santorum performs slightly better against Obama than Romney does. Which of the GOP's two frontrunners actually has the best shot at the White House?

Santorum edges out Romney: The flurry of new polls "provide solid proof that Santorum and Romney are now in a statistical dead heat" for the GOP nomination, says Jonathan Tobin at Commentary. And after Romney's bruising battle with Newt Gingrich and a series of devastating gaffes, Mitt is losing his "strongest argument for the nomination" — electability — because he's "losing support among the independents who made him more electable" against Obama in the first place. Suddenly, the well-liked Santorum is arguably the stronger candidate.
"New polls give more bad news for Romney"

Romney is still a much safer bet: I'm sticking with the conventional wisdom, says John Cassidy at The New Yorker: "If Santorum were to be nominated, the odds are that Obama would win in a landslide." Romney has his flaws, but "Santorum is essentially an ultra-right-wing protest candidate." Women in particular don't trust him on social issues, and even in this political climate, Americans won't elect "a religious zealot and armchair militarist of Santorum's stripe." Once he faces Romney's attacks and the media's scrutiny, Santorum's numbers should wilt.
"The Santorum surge: How seriously should we take it?"

They're almost evenly matched: "If I were a Republican, I'd still bet on Romney," but it's a toss-up, says Jonathan Chait at New York. In the end, it's a question of whose brand of swing voters are more important. If you think the general election will be decided by "economically conservative, socially liberal swing voters," Romney's your man. But if it's a contest for Reagan Democrats, the "economically populist and socially conservative" Santorum cleans up. And remember, if the economy improves, neither Republican has a great shot at beating Obama.
"Is Romney more electable than Santorum?"

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5 reasons the Santorum surge won't last

It's official: Several polls confirm that Rick Santorum's recent surge has pushed him into the lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. A CBS News/New York Times poll was one of several this week showing the former Pennsylvania senator edging past longtime favorite Mitt Romney, with the support of 30 percent of GOP primary voters compared to Romney's 27 percent. Last month, Santorum placed third in a similar poll — behind Romney and Newt Gingrich — with just 16 percent. Still, many political strategists believe Santorum is destined to be steamrolled by Romney. Here, five reasons the social conservative's detractors believe he's ultimately doomed: 1. He'll drown in a sea of Romney's money
Many pundits believe that Romney can't take down Santorum with the kind of negative ads he used to annihilate Newt Gingrich, simply because Santorum doesn't have nearly as many skeletons in his closet as the thrice-married Gingrich does. But "even if he doesn't go heavily negative," says Ed Kilgore at The New Republic, "Romney can use his heavy money advantage to saturate the airwaves" with positive ads in Arizona and Michigan, which vote on Feb. 28. That should help Romney stage a comeback in those two states. And if Mitt wins both, "the road gets much rockier for Santorum."

SEE MORE: Did Santorum actually beat Romney in Iowa?

2. Santorum can't appeal to mainstream Americans
"Santorum is essentially an ultra-right-wing protest candidate" in what is "essentially a centrist or center-right country," says John Cassidy at The New Yorker. The audience for "extremist views" always expands some during times of economic distress, which is how the neocons and Tea Partiers managed to burst onto the scene. But it just won't be enough to make the country at large interested in "supporting a religious zealot and armchair militarist of Santorum's stripe." And with the economy improving, "the market for political extremism is shrinking anyway."

3. Many conservatives still have eyes for Newt
In 2008, Santorum "was fighting to get former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney elected," says Chuck Norris at WorldNetDaily. It's still baffling that "an alleged conservative like Santorum would fight for the flip-flopping Massachusetts moderate" when there were real conservatives, like Mike Huckabee, in the race. "How can the 'alternative to Romney' also be a Romney supporter?" He can't. That's why, for many of us on the Right, Newt Gingrich is still the only true conservative alternative to Romney.

SEE MORE: Has Rick Santorum finally become a frontrunner?

4. Nobody's endorsing Santorum
Santorum's victories last week in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado have "not resulted in a flood of endorsements from prominent conservatives, or even a trickle," says Steve Kornacki at Salon. Facing a massive financial disadvantage against Mitt, "it's critical for Santorum to have loud, influential Republican opinion-shapers making his case and defending him against Romney's attacks." Maybe GOP leaders just don't watn Santorum.

5. Swing voters don't like him — even in his home state
Santorum likes to say he's the only GOP candidate who "has actually won a swing state." But six years ago, as a senator seeking a third term, "Santorum proved he can also lose in such a politically competitive state — and lose big," says Julie Hirschfeld Davis at Bloomberg. Santorum lost his last race in the swing state he calls home by a whopping 18 percentage points. Apparently he's not as popular with the undecided "Republicans who will determine who gets the party’s nomination," not to mention the independents who could swing the general election in November.

SEE MORE: Rick Santorum's belated Iowa win: Too late to matter?

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Santorum plans aggressive strategy against Romney

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A day after Mitt Romney regained some momentum in the Republican presidential contest, his rival Rick Santorum went on the attack, calling the front-runner "desperate" while promising to compete aggressively to win the state where Romney grew up.

Santorum said Sunday he could do "exceptionally well" in Michigan, where Romney's father served as governor. The Midwestern state and Arizona host Republican presidential nominating contests on Feb. 28.

"We're going to spend a lot of time in Michigan and Arizona, and those are up next. And that's where we've really been focusing on," Santorum told ABC's "This Week." He suggested that a strong showing in those contests would make the presidential contest "a two-man race," dismissing current rivals Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

Santorum shrugged off his third-place finish Saturday in caucuses in Maine, where he didn't actively compete, as well as his second-place finish in a straw poll of conservative activists.

Romney has been painting Santorum as a long-time Washington insider who pursued home-state projects. Santorum on Sunday described Romney's recent criticism as "desperate."

"You reach a point where desperate people do desperate things," said Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania during his 16 years in Congress, first in the House and then in the Senate.

Maine GOP officials declared Romney the winner of Saturday's caucuses. The results ended a three-state losing streak to Santorum, who swept contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Tuesday.

With the next primaries more than two weeks away, the break seems unusually long in the rapid-fire race that's featured six contests in the last 14 days. Romney and his rivals now have 17 days to raise cash and bolster their organizations for what's shaping up to be a slog to the Republican nomination and the right to face President Barack Obama in November.

As Santorum eyes Michigan, Romney turns his attention to extending his huge cash advantage over his rivals.

The Massachusetts governor left Maine before the caucus results were announced to attend a West Coast fundraiser Saturday night. He issued a written statement to mark his victory in the low-turnout contest.

"I'm heartened to have the support of so many good people in this great state," Romney said in the statement. "The voters of Maine have sent a clear message that it is past time to send an outsider to the White House."

Romney is expected to spend much of next week courting donors, while sprinkling in a handful of campaign events. He'll be in Arizona Monday evening.

Romney won a plurality of the Maine vote just hours after winning the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington.

But questions about Romney's durability as his party's presumed front-runner persist. Fully 61 percent of Maine voters selected a candidate other than Massachusetts' former governor in a state practically in his backyard. And Romney's showing was down considerably from 2008, when he won 51 percent of the vote.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a prominent voice among some conservatives, said Romney has work to do to convince GOP voters he's moved beyond his "pretty moderate past ... even in some cases a liberal past."

"I am not convinced, and I do not think the majority of GOP and independent voters are convinced," Palin said on Fox News Sunday.

Romney has focused more on social issues in recent days. He has been particularly aggressive in criticizing Obama's recent decision regarding contraception.

On Friday, after three weeks of controversy that pitted the nation's Catholic bishops against the White House, Obama revised his policy. Instead of requiring church-affiliated nonprofit employers to cover free contraception with the health insurance they offer workers, the policy now requires insurance companies to provide free birth control coverage in separate agreements with workers who want it.

White House chief of staff Jack Lew defended the decision Sunday, noting that there is no longer room for compromise.

"This is our plan," he said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Santorum said the president's plan doesn't resolve the issue. He says many Catholic institutions are self-insured and those organizations will still be forced to pay for women's contraception despite their religious objections.

"There's no compromise here. They are forcing religious organizations, either directly or indirectly to pay for something that they find is a deeply, morally, you know, wrong thing," Santorum, a Catholic, told NBC's "Meet the Press."

The focus on social issues plays well for Santorum, who has long been considered a staunch cultural conservative. Those credentials helped fuel his success last week.

But he wasn't a factor in Maine, where Romney captured 39 percent of the vote, narrowly defeating Paul's 36 percent, state Republican chairman Charlie Webster said. Santorum and Gingrich, who didn't actively campaign in Maine, won 18 percent and 6 percent respectively.

It was a disappointing showing for Paul, who on Sunday suggested that there was virtually no difference between his rivals.

"All three of them have represented the same system, the same status quo," Paul said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The Maine vote totals reflected about 84 percent of the state's precincts, with nearly 5,600 Republicans voting out of 258,000 registered. The contests scheduled for the coming days will not be counted, including an entire county that postponed its caucuses because of a snow storm.

"We were a little bit disappointed last night," Paul said, because he's done well in that county in the past and expected to do well Saturday.

Coming off last week's success, Santorum saw a surge in donations. His campaign reports gathering $3 million in the three days immediately following after last week's hat trick, but he's unlikely to catch Romney in the money race.

Santorum reported just $279,000 in the bank at the end of December, compared with Romney's $19.9 million. Gingrich had $2.1 million, but is still carrying substantial debt, while Paul reported $1.9 million.

Romney won 11 delegates and Paul 10, according to an analysis of the Maine results by The Associated Press. Santorum and Gingrich were shut out. That brings the delegate count to 123 for Romney, 72 for Santorum, 32 for Gingrich and 19 for Paul, with 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.

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4 ways Rick Santorum can hang onto his momentum

The Pennsylvania conservative shocked the political world Tuesday by proving he could beat Mitt Romney. And beat him. And beat him. Can Santorum keep it up?

Rick Santorum roared back into the Republican presidential race on Tuesday with a stunning sweep of contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. Santorum spent Wednesday raising money and brainstorming ways to build on his momentum — and avoid a replay of Iowa, where his win produced only the smallest and short-lived of bumps. "We are smart enough to know that this is no time to celebrate," senior Santorum strategist John Brabender tells The Washington Post. Facing a much better-funded, better-organized rival in Mitt Romney, and a tenacious splitter of the conservative vote in Newt Gingrich, what can Santorum really do to keep Tuesday's magic alive? Here, four ideas:

1. Santorum needs to raise serious cash
"Not to rain on Rick Santorum's parade, but the man needs help from Wall Street or Big Gambling and he needs it quick," says Jackie Koszczuk at National Journal. Santorum is "just about broke," and so is his super PAC. Sure, he raised $1 million after Tuesday's victories, "but it will take a wholesale change in Santorum's operation to turn things around." And that means the kind of cash only a "sugar daddy" can provide. You can bet Romney will throw the kitchen sink at Santorum, says Alexis Levinson at The Daily Caller. "If Santorum cannot raise enough money to counter that," he'll wither under Romney's attacks, just like Gingrich did.

SEE MORE: 2012 GOP race: Could Rick Santorum actually win?

2. He should use free media to his advantage
Assuming he can't match Romney's war chest, Santorum could use TV appearances to make up for his lack of campaign commercials. He started that effort on Wednesday, using interviews with Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC to savage Romney as an unprincipled "Mr. Big Government." There's not another TV debate until Feb. 22, but Santorum will get a crucial, free speaking platform at this weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), says Jason Johnson at Politic365. "If Santorum can wow the crowd and heavy hitting donors" at CPAC, "he can essentially control the narrative of the race until the next debate."

3. He should show off his culture warrior bona fides
"Santorum is outspoken regarding his Catholic faith," and he's been a "tireless worker on behalf of cultural issues" important to the GOP base, says Matt Lewis at The Daily Caller. This is the perfect moment for him to highlight those assets. Abortion provider Planned Parenthood is in the news for tangling with a breast-cancer charity, California's gay-marriage ban was just struck down, and "Catholics (arguably the swing vote in America) are coming under fire" from Obama over a mandate requiring religious institutions to provide employees with insurance coverage for contraception. Santorum should "lead the effort to push back" against Obama's "attack on the Catholic Church," says Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. "Lead a march. Hold a multi-faith gathering" — anything to "show he can lead and not simply give a good speech."

SEE MORE: Will the Santorum surge last beyond Iowa?

4. Santorum needs to pick his states very carefully
Santorum succeeded on Tuesday because he showed up to campaign while his rivals depended on ads or simply wrote states off as unimportant. Going forward, says John Brabender, Santorum's strategist, "we have to pick our battles." So far, those battles seem to be states where Santorum's blue-collar roots will trump Romney's blue-blooded wealth: Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and maybe even Newt's native Georgia. Alternatively, Santorum might be better off emulating "Barack Obama in 2008, who steadily and quietly siphoned off support in smaller states while Hillary Clinton targeted the larger ones," says Michael Wissot in Britain's The Guardian.

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Tuesday's 'stunning' Santorum sweep: 6 takeaways

The Republican presidential race just got a lot more interesting. On Tuesday night, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) scored "stunning" upset wins in the Colorado and Minnesota caucuses, and in Missouri's nonbinding "beauty pageant" primary. It was a clean sweep nobody saw coming — "probably not even Rick Santorum," says The New Yorker's John Cassidy. As recently as a week ago, Mitt Romney was expected to win all three contests, and political analysts expected him to win Colorado even as the votes were being tallied. Here, six takeaways from Tuesday's surprising outcome:

1. Santorum scored big bragging rights: After his Jan. 3 win in Iowa. Santorum suffered a string of dispiriting third- and fourth-place finishes. But all of a sudden, Santorum has now won four states, more than any of his GOP rivals. And he's the only candidate to notch wins in the electorally crucial Midwest. The cash-poor Santorum did it the hard way, too, through foot-pounding retail politics, says Alex Altman at TIME. It paid off: "In a single evening, he punctured the aura of inevitability that had gathered around Romney’s campaign," and toppled Newt Gingrich as the go-to not-Romney candidate. What he didn't do was win any delegates: Each of these three states will apportion their delegates later this year.

[SEE MORE: Is Nevada's Tea Party too dysfunctional to trip up Mitt Romney?]

2. Romney's coronation is now on hold: Santorum's hat trick is "a stunning rebuke to Mitt Romney and the national media," says The New Yorker's Cassidy. And Romney's "horrible, horrible night" will have lasting consequences, says Erick Erickson at RedState. In three key swing states, conservative voters "sent a very clear signal": We do not like Romney. Indeed, the real "story of Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado is the stunning weakness of Mitt Romney," says Paul Begala at The Daily Beast. "His super PAC outspent Santorum's by a 40-to-1 margin," and Santorum crushed him. That's "like the New York Yankees losing an exhibition game to a church-league softball team."

3. But Mitt is still favored to win the nomination: Tuesday was a bad night for the GOP frontrunner, but "barring a spectacular reversal in the months ahead," he will still "be anointed as the Republican nominee," says Thomas DeFrank in the New York Daily News. Things should get better for Romney as the contest moves into the friendlier territory of Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28, and then Super Tuesday on March 6, where "Romney's money advantage should help him plenty," says Jonathan Bernstein at A Plain Blog About Politics. For Santorum, "it's a long, long, way from a very good night to actually becoming a plausible nominee. Much less the actual nominee."

[SEE MORE: Nominating Mitt Malaprop]

4. Gingrich is toast: Newt "was a footnote in the three contests" Tuesday night, says Maggie Haberman at Politico. With little money and no momentum, "it's a bit hard to see how Gingrich is going to keep himself relevant in the coming weeks." He can't, says Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. "Gingrich's days as the leading not-Romney are just about over."

5. Republicans still aren't turning out to vote: "Are Republicans energized? Not if turnout is an indication," say Peter Hamby and John Helton at CNN. GOP voters came out in much smaller numbers on Tuesday than they did four years ago. The numbers "are so low as to be laughable," says John Hinderaker at PowerLine. In Minnesota, for example, fewer than 50,000 people participated in the caucuses; in the 2008 general election, 1,275,409 Minnesotans voted for Republican John McCain.

[SEE MORE: How deep-pocketed super PACs became 'shadow campaigns']

6. Geography is trumping history: The Republican race "appears to be turning into a regionally based contest," says The New Yorker's Cassidy, "with Santorum as the heartland candidate, Gingrich as the Southern candidate, and the Mittster as Mr. Everywhere Else — or so he hopes." What's striking is how much that map has changed in four years, says Politico's Haberman. In 2008, Romney won Colorado with a stunning 60 percent, but he lost to Santorum by 5 points on Tuesday, with 35 percent. Romney won Minnesota with 40.1 percent in 2008; this year, he came in an embarrassing, distant third, with 17 percent. What changed? In 2008, Romney was "the electable conservative alternative" to McCain. This year, he's almost become McCain: A centrist RINO.

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Can Rick Santorum roar back in the Midwest?

"The Republican presidential primary might be ready for another twist," says Alex Roarty at National Journal. As the contest moves back to the Midwest on Tuesday, Rick Santorum appears to be the biggest "not Mitt Romney" in the race. Recent polls put Santorum ahead of Romney in the Minnesota caucuses and Missouri's non-binding "beauty contest" primary, and in second place in Colorado, ahead of Newt Gingrich. Santorum also just scored high-profile endorsements from conservative blogger (and columnist for TheWeek.com) Ed Morrissey and other prominent right-wing opinion-makers, and a backhanded vote of confidence from the Romney camp, which started attacking Santorum for the first time in a month. A virtual nonentity since winning Iowa, is Santorum on the cusp of a Midwest-fueled comeback?

Santorum could really shake up the race: The former Pennsylvania senator is well positioned to win both Minnesota and Missouri, says Nate Silver at The New York Times. Add in Santorum's Iowa win, and Romney would be "zero for three in the nation's most important swing region." If Santorum romps among the Midwest's blue-collar workers and rural evangelicals, like he did in Iowa, he has at least "a coherent path to victory" through the bloc of states that "determine the winners and losers in most presidential elections."
"One test left for Romney: The Midwest"

Romney will quash any Santorum bump: The best evidence we have for a "Santorum surge" is Team Romney trying to bury him, says Molly Ball at The Atlantic. Romney is done taking chances, and his "'attack machine' proved awfully effective when Romney deployed it against Gingrich." And look, even if Tuesday does produce "a couple of freak Santorum wins," it probably won't help much. Remember, there aren't even any delegates at stake in Missouri's "strictly symbolic" contest.
"Is Rick Santorum still a factor in the GOP race?"

It's now or never for Santorum: The Pennsylvanian has this week to prove that he is, in fact, "the final, viable not-Romney candidate left," says Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. That means winning Minnesota and Missouri, and placing second in Colorado. It also means nailing his speech Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. The CPAC pitch to conservative activists is his "most critical event of the campaign," and it could net him the cash and grassroots support to take on Romney. That's a long shot, but "much weirder things have happened in this campaign."
"Santorum has his shot"

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