jsteele wrote:A few random thoughts:
1) much of the country has never heard of Rick Santorum. Tomorrow they will wake up and begin Googling him.
2) More people voted in the last DC mayoral primary then voted in the Iowa caucus.
3) Santorum essentially moved to Iowa. He has little staff or money. He just happened to be the "non-Romney" standing when the music stopped. He will have a very difficult time reproducing this result.
4) Because New Hampshire has always been considered a sure thing for Romney, it won't be that important. That means South Carolina becomes the key to the futures of Perry and Gingrich.
I think those are good observations. On New Hampshire however, Santorum could do better than expected in NH. There are a lot of Irish and Italian Catholics there. Anything that diminishes a resounding NH victory for Romney could be devastating to the image of him as the de facto frontrunner. If Santorum gets numbers that are considered a success, he'll get money.
Of course Santorum is one of the scariest possibilities for me because (a) every time the guy hears the word "gay" his eyes start blinking and he makes a face like a toddler being fed asparagus, and (b) he's not a complete idiot with no experience and therefore he may not implode. He's a known quantity that won't get worse with time. BUT I think he can't win a general election (at least I hope) and the longer he stays in the race, the more he drags Romney over into Rightyville USA. By the end we will be able to broadcast his own unedited campaign speeches as attack ads.