Santorum’s Stunning Trifecta

Just when it looked as though Romney was about to run away with the Republican nomination, Rick Santorum comes roaring back to win all three of Tuesday night's contests.

With victories in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado Santorum has reshaped the political landscape. Political pundits are no longer talking about a two-man race between Romney and Gingrich, but are now entertaining the possibility that Santorum could come from behind and win the nomination outright.

It was only a week ago that Romney, fresh off of his victory in Nevada-and with the blessings of Donald Trump, I might add-seemed to dismiss his Republican rivals, failing to mention them by name in his victory speech. Instead, Romney re-directed his attention toward President Obama.

Romney had made a similar mistake when, after a couple of early victories in Iowa and New Hampshire (New Hampshire was later awarded to Santorum), he indicated that his campaign would, henceforth, focus its attention on President Obama. But, After Gingrich trounced him in the South Carolina primary the Romney camp had to rethink that strategy.

Then, after a commanding victory in Florida and a subsequent victory in Nevada Romney appeared to have righted the ship and you would've thought it would be smooth sailing from there on.

But, Santorum had other ideas. Santorum, who had basically conceded Nevada to Romney, concentrated his efforts on the upcoming contests in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado. The tactic worked better than he could've imagined, and as the surprising results began to pour in, the camp-Romney spin-machine went into full damage-control mode. Every effort was made to turn, what could only have been a humiliating defeat, into a positive; from characterizing Missouri as a meaningless beauty contest to reminding pesky journalist that even John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, lost some contests.

At any rate, Santorum's performance Tuesday night has served notice that there is a new dog in the race; and although it may still turn out to be a two-man race, it might not be the two that most people had predicted.