PJ: Slow and steady, while Romney won the flashy vote in Florida and Gingrich upset the vote in South Carolina, Santorum's consistent message about conservative issues won him the three contests held Tuesday in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Pundits are split on why the sudden surge in appeal for the anti-contraception, anti-public school candidate. Whether his recent success is the result of protest votes against the front runner Romney and the ethically challenged Gingrich or whether his brand of ultra-right conservatism is the attraction, we won't know for a while. The only thing that we can be sure about is that the republican nominating contest will continue to entertain us for a while.
The Guardian
Rick Santorum back in the race after sweeping wins over Mitt Romney
Santorum won political caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, along with beauty contest in Missouri securing triple victory
By Ewen MacAskill
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has revived his flagging campaign with a trio of victories to upset frontrunner Mitt Romney's seemingly inevitable progress towards the party nomination.
Santorum achieved a clean sweep of the states being contested – Colorado, Minnesota and the non-binding "beauty contest" primary in Missouri. It was a disastrous night for Romney, not only because he lost states that only a few days ago he had expected to win but because of the scale of the defeat, coming in a humbling third in Minnesota.
The setback came just a week after he won the Florida primary and added a further victory on Saturday in Nevada, seemingly cruising towards the Republican nomination to take on Barack Obama for the White House in November.
Santorum ruined that, easily winning Minnesota and Missouri and finally taking Colorado after the result see-sawed back and forward during the count. Santorum won by 40.2% to Romney's 34.9%. To illustrate the scale of the defeat, Romney had won Colorado just four years ago by 60% to his then rival John McCain's 19%.
Santorum, the former senator for Pennsylvania and the most socially conservative of the candidates, won Iowa, the traditional start of the campaign, on 3 January but his campaign has been flagging since.
On the back of victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, he can claim to be a serious contender. Speaking at his victory party in St Charles, Missouri, Santorum presented himself as the voice of conservatism and the Tea Party movement. "Conservatism is alive and well," he said.
His triple victory is the latest shift in a Republican race that has seen the lead change hands over and over again.
Romney's poor showing will renew doubts about his ability to excite the Republican grassroots and whether he can inspire not only Republicans but the independents who will decide the White House race in November.
Also of concern to Republicans and offering hope to Democrats for Obama's re-election was the low turnout, suggesting there was the same level of disappointment with the Republican field expressed by voters in Florida last week.
Speaking in Denver, Colorado, Romney appeared shaken. He congratulated Santorum but vowed he would continue campaigning and still expected to become the nominee. "We've got a long way to go," he said.
Santorum, in his victory speech, focused not on his rivals but looked beyond the Republican race to the battle for the White House, staking his claim to be the serious contender to Obama. "I don't claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney; I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama," he said.
He took a swipe at Romney over his remark, taken out of context last week, that he did not care about the very poor. "I care about the very rich and the very poor. I care about 100% of America," Santorum said.
Santorum's main problem has been lack of cash compared with his rivals but his wins should see donations coming in by Wednesday. He has been helped until now by Foster Friess, the Wyoming-based investment manager, supporter of Christian causes and backer of the Santorum Super Pac Red, White and Blue, who was at his victory party.
Santorum may now face the same kind of multimillion negative ad campaign to which Romney subjected the former house speaker Newt Gingrich.
David Axelrod, Obama's main campaign adviser, said in a tweet: "If history is any guide, the bombers over at Mitt's Super Pac have discarded the Newt co-ordinates, dialled in Santorum and are on their way."
Santorum referred in his speech to Romney's negative ad campaign in Iowa and Florida against Gingrich. There were no entrance or exit polls in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri to determine whether there was a backlash against Romney's strategy or whether it was simply a matter of ideology, with Santorum viewed as more conservative than Romney.
Although Romney remains favourite to win the party nomination eventually, the win by Santorum sets the stage for a protracted campaign that could run on into the summer.
The four Republicans – Santorum, Romney, Gingrich and the Texas congressman Ron Paul – are slugging it out for the party nomination to take on Obama in November.
Paul, fighting an idiosyncratic campaign outside the Republican mainstream, has so far failed to deliver any upsets. He managed second place in Minnesota.
The winner of the Republican nomination needs 1,144 delegates to the party convention in Tampa in August. The Associated Press, which keeps a running tally of delegates awarded so far, has Romney on 101, Gingrich 32, Santorum 17 and Paul nine. That was before Tuesday night's results.
The big results for Santorum were Minnesota and Colorado, whose caucuses were about delivering delegates.
Colorado has 36 delegates at stake and Minnesota 40. Missouri had no delegates up for grabs. Its convention to choose delegates is not until 17 March and it only decided to hold its primary to try to seize a share of media attention.
The potential turning point could be Super Tuesday on 6 March when 10 states hold elections. Gingrich and Santorum victories in some of these states and a share of delegates in others would doom Romney's chances of bringing the race to a close in April.
Romney, aware of the danger posed by Super Tuesday, has scheduled a campaign event on Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the biggest states in contention that date. It should go to Gingrich as it is his home state.
Gingrich has also turned his attention to the Super Tuesday states, spending Tuesday campaigning in Ohio.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/08/rick-santorum-victory-colorado-minnesota
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