WASHINGTON • Rick Santorum's victory speech in St. Charles last night, much like his debate performances of late, showed a candidate gaining the confidence he will need to negotiate the treacherous campaign terrain ahead.
His refrain that President Barack Obama sees himself as a priveleged person who "thinks he's smarter than you" and believes that he knows better than average Americans is the sort of rhetoric that can appeal to voters of all stripes wary of government intrusion.
But Santorum will need more than well-crafted phrases and a burst of momentum from his wins in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado if he is to mount a serious, long-term challenge to Mitt Romney's well-honed political machine and super PAC with its seemingly boundless cash reserves.
Missouri may have given Santorum momentum but thus far Missourians have given him little of the wherewithal he will need to compete: Santorum reported a paltry $7,000 in donations from Missouri in financial disclosure last week, compared with well over over $1 million in Missouri money donated to Romney's campaign and hundreds of thousands more to his super PAC.
While he waits to see if his victories yesterday translate to cash, Santorum can expect an avalanche of negative ads, robo-calls and surrogate campaining from pro-Romney forces similar to the concerted attacks that flattened Newt Gingrich in Florida and were, inexplicably, continuing against Gingrich this morning.
Later this morning, the Romney campaign trained its sights at both Gingrich and Santorum at the same time with a "research briefing" that reads: "On earmarks, Newt opened the door and Santorum walked right through it."
"Santorum took three wins last night and painted a giant target on his back," political commentator Larry Sabato said in an interview this morning.
"Now he's going to experinece what Newt Gingrich did in Florida and it will have the desired effect. These things always do," added Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Romney backers like Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who has been somewhat muted in his public praise while arranging Capitol Hill support for Romney, likely will become more forceful in their assertion that the former Massachusetts governor remains the GOP's likely nominee and best bet in November.
"Mitt Romney has the organization and the resources to go the distance in this election, and I believe he'll ultimately win our party's nomination," Blunt said in a statement last night.
Santorum does have a calendar advantage: After the Maine caucuses Feb. 11, there's a 17-day interval before the next significant contests, in Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28. So Santorum has the opportunity to broaden his coalition and raise money from conservatives eager for an alternative to Romney and perhaps attract the sort of wealthy donors who have kept Gingrich's campaign afloat.
To have a chance, Santorum may well need to win Arizona given Romney's advantage in Michigan, where Romney used to live. Then Santorum will need to do well in the multi-state Super Tuesday vote on March 6 and hope for another strong showing in the Missouri caucuses on March 17.
As Sabato noted, Santorum's success on the heels of Gingrich's rise and fall virtually assures a marathon GOP contest, something Romney had not anticipated.
"He (Romney) has a much bigger challenge now than winning over the conservative base and and getting them excited about his candidacy, and I don't know how he does it," Sabato says.
"Because the more he appeals to the conservative base, the less likely it is that he can successfully appeal to the independents and swing voters he needs in the fall election," he added.
