I agree with Peter that Santorum has done well considering his limited on-the-ground organization, his (up until very recently) very limited funding, and his almost nonexistent support from Republican elected elites (when compared to Romney - or even Gingrich.) But even though Republican governors and members of Congress are not a repository of infallible wisdom, the lack of Santorum endorsements might be useful information in itself. I doubt he is as smart as Gingrich or Romney, but there is more to life than that and Santorum is smart enough for most purposes. He lacks a certain verbal agility when he is unprepared for a question, but knowing what he actually believes helps with that a lot. He took the time to learn stuff about stuff. He is better informed than Bachmann, Cain or Perry (though with Perry it was probably more a state-level issues vs. national-level issues thing) and he is a lot more honest than Gingrich. Which makes certain holes in his campaign all the more frustrating. It isn’t impossible to prepare remarks so that they are concise rather than meandering. It isn’t impossible to have a stock answer or two for when a reporter asks you about some old speech you gave (a speech that the Romney opposition research staff may well have fed the reporter) and shift the focus on your own issues rather than relitigating everything you ever said in public. He only lost Ohio and Michigan by a little and some nonzero fraction of Romney’s support is based on the idea that Santorum is unelectable/unfocused/rhetorically undisciplined, and the things Santorum says play into that. With a little more self-control, he might be winning pluralities of the popular vote in more states.
