Look, flame me if you will, but I agree with Markos that Santorum is a MUCH weaker candidate than Romney. Aside from Santorum's "Google Problem", he has a HUGE pile of crazy shit that has frothed up and out of his mouth. Romney makes conservatives disappointed. Santorum makes everyone else afraid. Follow me below the squiggly macaroni and I'll walk you through the rest.
First of all, look at the calendar and the map. It all points towards Romney's advantage for the most part. He also has the party establishment behind him as well as Wall St. and a lot of the other big corporate money that's out there. Do you think the Chamber of Commerce-types could honestly support a Culture War firebrand like Santorum? It's JUST NOT GOOD FOR BUSINESS!
Second, Santorum is having A LOT of trouble just getting on the ballot in some states. If that doesn't tell you that his campaign apparatus is a joke, then I guess nothing will. Now, if he keeps racking up delegates and surging in the polls, then maybe some more money, people and infrastructure will jump ship from Romney's camp and head his way, but it will still be an unorganized mess.
Additionally, this is Rick's first REAL time running for this candidacy thing, so his inexperience shines through on an almost daily basis. BTW, it's fortunate that Romney's unfavorability tends to counteract the much more solid campaign infrastructure and experienced people he has on his side (and then some apparently). Lengthening out the primary process sheds some much-needed light on Romney's unfavorables and gets the media talking in ways that attacks from the Dems could never do. The more people see of Romney, and the more opportunities he has to make asinine remarks, the less people like him, plain and simple.
Continuing on, if Santorum actually manages to win this thing, this would be a GOOD THING for Liberalism and the country as a whole, especially in the long term. With a Romney candidacy, his wishy-washy ways will ensure that voters won't know who the heck this guy is and what he believes in. In a Romney candidacy, he'll tack back to the right wing after his harrowing journey through the feathers that had long since been shed off the right wingtip. Polls and presenting a licked finger to the wind might even bring him to center-right if Romney thinks it'll get him elected. As such, we won't have a TRUE contest between the common-sense approaches of President Obama and the vile and putrid ideas that have taken the Conservative Movement by storm over the last few elections. We'll have weasel-like answers to questions about his changing positions on healthcare, energy, foreign policy and basically ALL other policy areas where his positions have "evolved".
However, in a Santorum candidacy, we will see a grand contest of ideas...if you can call Santorum's drivel "ideas". The voters that don't normally pay attention to off-year elections (thanks for 2010 you lazy bastards!) or primaries or don't care about politics in general will finally get to see all the crazy shit we've been hearing from these Teabaggers for almost 4 years now. They may be glued to reality TV and sports most of the time, but the shock of seeing what has happened to a major political party in this country would necessarily be overwhelming and command their attention. The last time they saw just a preview of the batshit crazy was when McCain picked Palin as his running mate.
They did not like what they saw.
Common sense is still there in these low-information voters. It's gummed up by high-fructose corn syrup and cheap beer, but it's still there. There will be no tacking towards the center for Santorum; he will ride the molting feathers of the right wing all the way down into a frothy puddle on the ground. Can you imagine the kind of debates Obama and Santorum would have? Obama vs. Romney would be a real snoozer as the former governor would tie himself in knots to make Romneycare, sound different from Obamacare along with all his other flip-flops. Obama vs. Santorum would put the Culture Wars AND Ayn Rand on trial (how those two diametrically opposed "philosophies" can coexist in one skull is a testament to how hard-headed these 'wingers are!). In short, we would finally put to bed the notion that the U.S. is a "center-right" country. If the right has moved that far out of the mainstream, the center would clearly be far away from them.
Finally, a decisive victory over the REAL conservative that had the courage to say all that crazy shit in public could also begin the dismantling of the Reagan Revolution if we play our cards right.