Does Rick Santorum's triple whammy change anything?

RICK SANTORUM has delivered a triple-whammy to frontrunner Mitt Romney after last night's victories in Republican caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and a primary in Missouri - or has he?

Santorum thrashed Romney by 30 percentage points in Missouri, 28 points in Minnesota and five points in Colorado. The Wall Street Journal points out that of the eight nomination votes held so far, Santorum has won four, while Romney has taken three and Newt Gingrich one.

He has shown that he can do well in the electoral swing states of Missouri and Colorado. Romney, in contrast, has been rejected by two states he won in the 2008 Republican contest, Minnesota and Colorado.

Santorum will now hope to establish himself as the conservative alternative to Romney - a ticket Gingrich has been running on since his own Romney-thumping surprise in South Carolina last month.

More important, Santorum's victories should lead to a much-needed injection of campaign funds going into the 'Super Tuesday' nomination contests in a month's time.

As Aaron Blake writes in The Washington Post: "By winning in Missouri, Santorum proved three things: that Romney can lose, that he can beat Romney head-to-head under the right set of circumstances, that this race isn't yet over."

But Santorum's victories are not as impressive as they seem. All three states were very conservative, says The New York Times, which adds that they include "large numbers of the sort of evangelicals and Tea Party adherents who had flocked to Santorum's candidacy in Iowa".

Moreover, the Missouri contest was essentially meaningless. Because of a Republican party row over the timing of primaries, no delegates will be awarded. For that reason, Romney had not campaigned in the state. And it's not as if voters have even dealt a stunning blow to Gingrich, since he was not on the ballot in Missouri and did not bother to campaign in Minnesota or Colorado.

Santorum's success might even play into Romney's hands. As The New York Times observes, the "bright spot" for Romney is that "Santorum's new strength promises to split the anti-Romney vote in two with Gingrich, reducing its potential threat".

With a month of campaigning to go before 'Super Tuesday', when ten states go to the polls, Santorum and Gingrich will struggle to match the campaigning dollars and nationwide organisation of Romney - and the importance of organisation is no more apparent than in the absence of Santorum and Gingrich from the ballot in one of the Super Tuesday states, Virginia, thanks to poor administration.

But as the Los Angeles Times observes, the onset of "Santorumania" can only benefit one person: President Barack Obama. "The Republican campaign, a festival of negative campaigning, has made all the GOP candidates look worse," the paper says. · 

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