Santorum as Republican Id

Despite polls showing Rick Santorum leading nationally by as many as 12 points, most still think Mitt Romney will win the nomination, with his odds as predicted by the market at Intrade.com still hanging relatively strong at 72%. But Rick Santorum seems well-placed to do a lot of damage to the Romney brand before he's done. Santorum's greatest asset is that he embodies the Republican Party more than any candidate, and he finds himself locked in a battle with an opponent whose biggest weakness is his lack of conservative bona fides.

On social issues, Santorum is more extreme than any candidate in modern history. His social views are defined by an open hostility to anything other than a Christian heterosexual marriage that produces hordes of children. He would use the office of the Presidency to rail against "the whole sexual libertine idea". His views on homosexuality are famous, comparing gay relationships to incest, bigamy, "man on child [and] man on dog." While it's tempting to thing such views would disqualify him from the nomination, such views are regularly spouted on talk radio stations around the country.

When it comes to economic policy, his record is a microcosm of Republican thought. His economic proposals focus on ruinous tax cuts coupled with draconian cuts to social programs. But he also has a record, like the rest of the 21st century Republican Party, of voting for a huge expansion of government programs in his vote for prescription drug coverage in Medicare. He rails against any federal involvement in K-12 education, but he voted for No Child Left Behind, which greatly expanded Washington's role.

These elements of Santorum make him the perfect foil to cause damage to Mitt Romney. The primary season has more than anything been defined by a reluctance of Republican rank-and-file to accept Romney due to his history of running as a liberal against Ted Kennedy in 1994, as a moderate for governor in 2002, and now as a conservative. Each Herman Cain or Donald Trump who rose to the top of the polls represented a desperate hope amongst the electorate for a true conservative. They were repeatedly disappointed by the failures of these flashes in the pan. Rick Santorum has a 20 year history of down-the-line conservatism (or at least what passed for conservatism at the time). This allows him to provide a reliable conservative alternative to Romney. If he can pull off a win in Michigan, where he currently leads in the polls, he can bring down Romney.