Romney has to be the candidate. It's painfully clear he's the only real option. Paul is terrific and would be valuable in an administration but he isn't viable. Newt has some good ideas but he's still Newt. Santorum is an absolute fraud and I never want to hear that idiot speak again.

A few things. One, everything was skewed towards Romney because the crowd was heavily Romney. Romney's normal stump speech answers were drawing hoops and hollers, while Santorum's normal stump speech answers were getting booed. I think that skewed the debate heavily in Romney's favor and may be the biggest reason Romney looked as good as he did in the debate. That perception had nothing to do with Santorum's actual performance and I actually felt like his ability to stay cool while getting booed on a regular basis was pretty impressive.

Also, the fact that he was getting double teamed by Romney and Paul raised the degree of difficulty on his debate by a very high margin. Again, that was something that really hurt him in the debate that had nothing to do with his actual performance.

I did miss the first 10 minutes or so, so it's possible Romney did much better during that time and I missed it. But on the whole, I was impressed with Santorum's ability to stay calm and collected, answer questions as honestly as possible, perry attacks fairly well while landing one haymaker on Romney but not much else.

Yes, some of his answers hurt him because the positions simply aren't popular. But I really felt that the way he dealt with each one directly, birth control, no child left behind, made him come across as honest and self confident and stood in steep contrast to the robotic consultant driven responses that Romney gives.

On the whole, I just feel like being the front runner is a tough position to be in and given the extraneous factors he was dealing with, he handled himself very well. He got beat up a little bit, but he never gave in or let it get to him. He was able to land one forceful well aimed blow on Romney and he made a very good closing argument. And the fact that he looked about two inches taller then Romney helped his optics the whole debate. He's clearly a flawed candidate, but for what he was working with, I thought he did about as well as he could have and he came off to this fairly liberal guy as yes, likable.

Just my opinion.

Yep, tonight Santorum put all of his hypocritical contradictions on display. Opposes obamacare because he doesn't want the government involved in healthcare, unless it is to promote his social agenda. Hates the federal government getting involved in affairs of state and local government, but he supported No Child Left Behind (and it wasn't like he just voted for it, he was a major proponent of it). Criticizes Romney for not being consistent, but says that "there's no i in team." Supported Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey because there's no i in team. Can't stand the government funding contraception, but voted every year for the bill that funds planned parenthood.

If Bob Dole announced tomorrow that he was running, I think he'd win enough delegates to get a brokered convention. And he's 88 years old.

Think that promise has been made based on the cozy Romney/Paul relationship.

The fact that Santorum is even still a factor makes me weep for our future.

Probably but I also think Paul realizes he doesn't have a shot and sees Santorum as a nut job who has no chance in the general. I think he is helping Romney since he is the only shot they have in the fall.

Paul's libertarian ideals are so far removed from the big-government republicans, it would be hard to see this ever happening

Yes, but...I think Rand might be the real target here.

Reagan and Bush 43 did okay without veering too much to the middle. Obama didn't really do it either (unless you call the empty rhetoric about "hope and change" veering toward the middle).

More on the Romney-Paul alliance...looks like they're personal friends and political strategic partners. It's much deeper than I initially thought.

Back when this was first getting tossed around like a conspiracy theory, I had heard that the Paul delegates were prepared to throw their votes behind Romney if it came to that. They had even organized it so that Paulbots would vote for Romney in a state where Paul wouldn't do too well.

It'd be easy to dismiss that, but the Paulbots are incredibly organized.

It could be that Paul IS easy to buy off, once he's convinced he can't do more than that, but I also think Romney believes there's no harm in allowing Paul into his administration. Could be that he wants Paul as an attack dog to defend Constitutionalism when necessary.

Secretary of the Treasury, perhaps?

You don't think? I disagree, but I say that with the caveat that I'm not aware that Paul has any special expertise (HHS, perhaps) that would make him a leading candidate for a cabinet position. Still, I think you earn major GOP street cred having a Constitutionalist attack dog in your posse.

And seeing as this is probably Paul's last hurrah on the national stage, I just think it's a perfect situation for him to step into.

Edit: Having thought about it a bit more, Paul would be a liability if he started questioning the policies of the President he's serving...he's never minced words, and doesn't really have anything to lose by doing so.