Santorum moves into a poll lead over Romney

What happened

Rick Santorum emerged as Mitt Romney’s most serious challenger for the Republican presidential nomination this week, with national polls showing the former Pennsylvania senator pulling into first place for the first time. Just a week after winning primary contests in Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota, Santorum opened a small lead over Romney nationally, and more importantly, a 9-point lead in Michigan, which holds its primary on Feb. 28. Romney, a Detroit native whose father was governor of Michigan, had been expected to win that state easily. His alarmed campaign is now pouring $1.3 million into advertising in Michigan in hopes of halting Santorum’s momentum.

Romney did win both the Maine caucus and the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. In attempting to win over the CPAC audience, Romney used the word “conservative” or some variant of it 29 times in a half-hour-long speech. But he irritated many in the audience when he described himself as “a severely conservative Republican governor.” Santorum later accused Romney of rigging the CPAC poll by busing in supporters and paying their entrance fees. “You reach a point where desperate people do desperate things,” Santorum said.

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What the editorials said

Santorum’s appeal isn’t hard to fathom, said The Wall Street Journal. He’s a social conservative who “lives what he preaches,” a rare commodity in this race of “false political fronts.” And he has also benefited from Romney’s unconvincing, gaffe-prone, and “relentlessly negative” campaign. But if Santorum is to capture the nomination, he needs a “broader, governing message” on how to reignite our stagnant economy. The presidency is “not won by values alone.”

Nor will it be won by Romney’s “pulverizing his rivals,” said National Review. The “lack of enthusiasm” conservatives feel for him has opened the door to Santorum, who is trying hard to become more than a “social issues candidate.” The GOP would benefit if voters now had a clear choice between the moderate Romney and Santorum, who has won more contests and amassed more delegates than Newt Gingrich. When Gingrich was surging, he urged Santorum to drop out so conservatives could unite behind one candidate. By that same standard, Gingrich should now “endorse Santorum and exit.”

What the columnists said

Another week, another GOP front-runner, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. But there’s reason to believe that Santorum will last longer than the other not-Romneys. Liberals see Santorum as a backward, bigoted social conservative who sneers at gays and says working moms should stay home with their kids. But Santorum appeals to a certain kind of swing voter—white, working-class males who “love guns, hate welfare, oppose free trade, and want higher taxes on the rich and corporations.” Those are exactly the kind of swing voters Romney has failed to excite.

It’s difficult to find any Republican who’s passionate about Romney, said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. Even his supporters say he’s “effective” rather than inspirational. Successful presidential nominees need “something solid” behind their candidacy—be it a “resonant personal story” or a “bold vision.” With Romney, all you get is a “puff of presidential-looking air.” And the harder he tries, the less convincing he seems, said Byron York in Washington​Examiner.com. Take his use of the negative word “severely” to describe his conservatism. “‘Severe’ is a word liberals use to describe conservatism,” not one conservatives use about themselves. It sounds as if the candidate doth protest too much.

Santorum’s rise presents Romney with a real dilemma, said Ed Kilgore in TheNewRepublic.com. He can’t “go nuclear” on Santorum as he did with Gingrich, because that negative TV ad barrage dragged down Mitt’s own favorability ratings. Nonetheless, Romney maintains a huge fund-raising and organizational advantage over Santorum, and in Michigan and beyond, “Mitt’s money may come to the rescue.” Voters also will be reminded—by the media if not by Romney—that Santorum is a “social issues zealot” whose stance on working women, gay marriage, and abortion alarms independent voters and would energize Democrats. The Santorum surge may yet prove to be a squall.