Santorum displaces Gingrich as main challenger to Mitt

Ok. I knew the Democrats in Minnesota were crazy. But who would have thought that the Republicans in our northern neighbor state were zanier than they are here in Iowa?

While to say that I have doubts about his electability would be to put it mildly, I have always rather liked Rick Santorum. He's bright, he's articulate, he shares (no, embodies, to a great extent) my concerns about social issues (even though his rhetoric on those issues needs some polishing), and I was saddened by his defeat six years ago in his race for re-election to the Senate (even though I've always been a fan of the Casey clan, a gaggle of that endangered species the pro-life Democrat). No, it's not Santorum's expected victory in Minnesota and unexpected victories in Colorado and Missouri that have me shaking my head. It's that somehow Crazy Ron finished ahead of Mitt Romney in Minnesota!

Continuing his pattern of bizarrely optimistic post-defeat rhetoric, Paul characterized his performance in Minnesota as "a strong second-place finish," and added that "it's going to continue." Paul lost by 18 points.

Not to get excited, Jeff. I heard a joke last night on TV about how Mitt Romney has Secret Service protection, while Paul is accompanied by a mall cop. That still sums things up where the confused congressman from Mars who thinks he is living in 1789 is concerned. Paul is still a non-player, a protest candidate, a distraction who has no chance of winning the nomination and whose only impact on the race may be to win enough delegates to make the Republican party look silly on national TV when the convention rolls around. But he'd better hurry if he's even going to pull that off.

Romney still has 115 delegates to 38 for Gingrich (who might as well throw in the towel at this point),  34 for Santorum, and 20 for Paul. True, the race still has a long way to go; 1,144 delegates are needed to win the nomination. But it's hard to see anybody but Romney - and maybe Santorum, but still probably not- getting anything close to that number. And it's hard to see a path for Paul to finish higher than third (if Gingrich drops out) in a three-man race.

Color 2012 anothre meaningless existential gesture for the followers of the bizarre gentleman from Utopia Planita, by way of Texas. And color the GOP contest a two-man race between Romney and Santorum- though Gingrich, like Lóegaire Buadach of the Ulster myth (who accidentally brained himself on the door frame while rushing outside to do battle), may fight ferociously on anyway, not having noticed that he is dead.