Santorum Sweep!
By Politico, I will not underestimate you… twice.
Just in case the 2012 Republican primary race hasn’t already had enough twists and turns – welcome back, Rick Santorum.
After winning Tuesday’s non-binding contests in Missouri and Minnesota by thumping margins, bruising Mitt Romney and proving again that the GOP base isn’t ready to embrace their national front-runner, the former Pennsylvania senator has dramatically resuscitated a campaign that was bordering on irrelevant. Santorum was in a virtual dead heat with Romney in the Colorado caucus results as of early Wednesday morning [apparently Politico doesn’t stay up very late– ed] .
Santorum, who faded quickly after his narrow win in Iowa last month, now has his best and almost certainly last chance to show that he can compete at the same level as Romney and Newt Gingrich. In a month his campaign hoped to use as an opportunity to outflank Gingrich on the right and establish himself as the primary alternative to Romney, Santorum is on his way to accomplishing both goals.
Also, kudos for finding a sentence construction (“Santorum Roars Back”) that defies easy joke-making. There is only one thing that I have asked of the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination contest, and that’s entertainment. The Santorum Sweep suggests that even if Romney remains inevitable, there may yet be additional chuckles.