The Gingrich-Santorum Anti-Romney Alliance

Rick Santorum might not win New Hampshire, but with the help of Newt Gingrich, maybe he can watch Mitt Romney lose.

Rick Santorum might not win New Hampshire, but with the help of Newt Gingrich, maybe he can watch Mitt Romney lose. Santorum doesn't have the money Romney has (less than $1 million to $14 million raised in the third quarter), or the poll numbers (averaging 4.3 percent to Romney's 41 percent), or the establishment support, but he has an angry Gingrich who'll do his dirty work for him. New York's Jonathan Chait points out that Gingrich has already said he's ready to take on this role. “We're going to be defining Romney out of the mainstream of the Republican party,” Gingrich said Tuesday. Chait writes, "The interesting part is that by 'we' he apparently meant himself and Santorum. That, I suppose, could be the answer to the anti-Romney coordination problem – Gingrich as the bad cop to Santorum’s good cop, with Gingrich staying in the race to pound away at his tormentor while Santorum tries to mop up the right-wing votes."

NBC News' First Read writes that while Gingrich is attacking Romney from the right, Jon Huntsman will be hitting him from the center. "That creates an opportunity for Santorum, who has the potential to stay above that fray and pull off another surprising finish," they say. "Second place in New Hampshire is worth something if it’s 25% or more." Look how breezily Santorum floats above it all. Asked by the Associated Press' Kasie Hunt about John McCain's endorsement of Romney Wednesday, Santorum said, "John is a more moderate member of the Republican team, and I think he fits in with Mitt's view of the world." Okay, that's not 100 percent breezy, but Santorum is not hinting that Romney might be worse than President Obama, as Gingrich did.

And while McCain is endorsing Romney, Romney doesn't have the excitement McCain had. Politico's Reid Epstein reports that four years ago, McCain's town halls in high schools "filled up the whole gyms," while "Romney is cordoning off a small corner of it to look packed." The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza wonders whether McCain's endorsement only reinforces the idea that Romney is too centrist for the Republican base. Santorum is already winning among conservatives. CNN reports that entrance polls showed that Santorum won the plurality (28 percent) of conservative voters, who were 83 percent of the people who showed up to caucus. He won among people who strongly or somewhat support the Tea Party. He won among people who decided the day of the caucus, who decided in the last few days, of those who decided in December. Less than a third of New Hampshire likely voters have made up their minds. To do better than expected, Santorum doesn't have to convince that many New Hampshire voters to like him, he just needs Gingrich to convince enough of them that they can't tolerate Romney.