1st week of Feb round-up part 2

Not done.

Because we keep having this crazy back-and-forth about Romney and how much of a RINO he is, and I don't mean to rain on your parade, but we can't have Gingrich - we just can't, he's a twice-divorced two-timing big-government megalomaniac who gives practically zip to charity and couldn't be more "establishment" if he tried - and barring a miracle, Santorum will never get past Gingrich, and it's not like I'd give Rick Sweatervest even odds against Obama anyway.

Oh, sure he's polling even right now. Right now, when Obama's already fired a few opening salvoes across Romney's bow and hasn't paid any attention to Santorum. After four months of the Tim Tebow treatment?

It's a line I love, so I'll use it again: Obama can't run on his record, because his record stinks worse than the aftermath of an Occupy protest. So he's going to smear the other guy in an attempt to prove that he's still a better alternative. Can Rick Santorum, whose campaign is almost out of cash now, survive four months of brutal negative ads?

Yeah, he'll get more money. But the dark horse, back-of-the-room candidate against a sitting President?

If your goal is to reduce the size and scope of the federal government (and I don't know about you, but that's certainly my goal), you need more than just a "pure" candidate or a candidate who will do everything you want in the event that they do manage to get elected. You need a candidate who can actually get elected.

And I don't think social conservativism is a winning issue this year, and I'll go into that in greater detail in part 3.

I want to be clear here: I'm not saying "don't vote for Santorum in the primary." One, it's political speech, so I'm sure that somehow it's not actually constitutionally protected (even though that was the whole point of free speech in the first place), and two, a vote for Santorum is a vote to keep Santorum in the race.

And I want Santorum to stick around. He siphons a lot of votes away from Gingrich, and he's better than Gingrich at hammering Romney on Romneycare. If you don't believe me, watch Jacksonville again.

And votes for Santorum will probably help move Romney more to the right. Gingrich, not so much, because if Gingrich tries to attack Romney on Romneycare, Romney can just point out, as he did in at least one debate, that he got the individual mandate idea from Newt. And Gingrich is polling well behind the others when it comes to a match-up against Obama. Stick a fork in him, he's done.

But the odds of Santorum winning the primary, let alone the general, are phenomenally low. He could always do what Romney did after 08, and spend the next four years laying the groundwork for a much better campaign...