Santorum’s surge

Rick Santorum revived his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this week with a trio of surprise victories, in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and in Missouri’s nonbinding primary. In yet another twist in the saga of the GOP race, the former Pennsylvania senator won all three states by healthy margins, strengthening his argument that he, and not Newt Gingrich, is the real conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney. Santorum’s unexpected rise also cast doubt on Romney’s ability to run away with the race. Repeated Romney gaffes have raised new questions about his electability (see Controversy of the week), while sluggish voter turnout in the primaries that he won—down 14 percent from 2008 in Florida and 26 percent in Nevada—suggests that conservative voters still lack enthusiasm for the former Massachusetts governor.

This week marked “a new chapter” in the GOP race, said Jennifer Rubin in WashingtonPost.com. Gingrich’s baggage has finally “pushed him down to the bottom of the pack,” and his campaign is now on the ropes. Santorum, on the other hand, will now almost certainly emerge as the “final anti-Romney contender.” His positive conservative message appealed to both pro-lifers and blue-collar workers in the Midwest. Romney will have to “compete hard” to win in Michigan at the end of February.

Santorum still has work to do, said Jay Cost in NationalReview.com. Gingrich is not about to “sail quietly into the night,” despite his poor showing in this week’s contests. Santorum’s next task is to convince conservatives to coalesce behind him, and not the former speaker—and to use all the free media he can get to overcome both Gingrich’s “bombast” and “Romney’s money advantage.”

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Money is about the only advantage Romney has left, said Nate Silver in The New York Times. He lost Minnesota and Colorado, despite having easily won both in 2008—about the “worst results conceivable” for the man once considered the inevitable nominee. Romney’s deep unpopularity with highly conservative Republican voters and the tumbling turnout figures “are not the hallmarks of a race with a dominant candidate.” Now that Santorum has won four out of the eight nominating contests, Romney has a “much longer and more difficult race” ahead than he—or anyone else—thought.