Santorum Surge? No, Just The Last Man Standing

From Tara:

Rick Santorum's supporters and the media have been talking about "the surge" nonstop for the past few days.  And it's true, Rick Santorum is up in the polls.  Unexpectedly so.

But that's not because everyone is just now discovering the excitement of his candidacy.  It's because every other darling of the far right has fallen by the wayside along the campaign trail.

Let's start with Bachmann. She came out of the Iowa Straw Poll on a momentary high--only to have it grabbed away by a well-timed Rick Perry announcement of his entry into the race.  He stole her momentum, and she's never regained it.  Her campaign will come to an end after tonight.

Perry was going all the way, if you listened to the pundits in the first few days of his campaign...but then people started listening to the candidate himself as he blundered and sputtered his way through debates and interviews,  and folks couldn't help shaking their heads in consternation.  He wasn't THE ONE.

The next flavor of the month was businessman Herman Cain, who destroyed himself with personal problems.  What's fascinating about his rise and fall is just how tenaciously his defenders stuck with him as the allegations of sexual harassment accumulated.  It took the revelation of an extramarital affair to finally bring his candidacy down, which tells me something significant about the priorities of his supporters.

For a few weeks after Cain left the race, things were quiet.  Everyone waited to see who might gather in all of those socially-conservative folks here in Iowa.  It wasn't going to be Ron Paul, and for reasons that are still not spoken aloud by many, it wasn't going to be the Mormon in the race.

So who's left?  Plodding old Rick Santorum.