Is Santorum the best candidate?

[Old Man Willow]

I'm starting to think so. He is a strong social conservative who can rally the base, and I think he would do a better job of getting Romney voters than Gingrich.

He is the most unknown out of the serious candidates, to people who are just starting to pay attention to him he is 'new'. He has the right amount of charisma, and he comes off more genuine than any candidate in recent history, at least to me. I really like Romney and still support him, but I think Santorum might do best in a one on one with Obama, since he has been very good at calling out his opponents so far, and Obama might come off poorly seriously attacking him. Look at Gingrich's past and Romney's past, then look at Santorum's. Not nearly as much to go after there.

Sadly with Newt in the race we'll never get the chance to see Santorum take on 1 serious opponent to see how he'll do.

[Keystone Phil]

Shhhhhh...he's getting out before Iowa...

[Averroës Nix]

Sadly with Newt in the race we'll never get the chance to see Santorum take on 1 serious opponent to see how he'll do.

The problem for Santorum is that Newt's campaign is a melodramatic clown-show, and therefore far more interesting to cover.

[Lief 🗽]

He's a pretty mediocre candidate, but compared to Romney and Gingrich, yes.

[TheGlobalizer]

Depends on how you'd define "best", but using mainstream/polish criteria:

1. Romney
2. Santorum
3. Paul
4. Gingrich

Paul is above Gingrich solely because he has upside.  Gingrich has gone off the rails every time he's been in the lead.

If it's on ideology, it looks more like this:

1. Romney
2. Paul
3. Santorum
4. Gingrich

If it's on authenticity:

1. Paul
2. Santorum
3. Romney
4. Gingrich

And sounding like an intellectual:

1. Gingrich
2. Romney
3. (tie) Santorum / Paul

Season to taste.

[Beet]

I think Santorum has one more boom left in him (he gets left out when he's too nice to Gingrich's bombthrowing, but I think the Florida debate showed that when he does go on the attack, it's effective), but he will ultimately fall to the Romnster as there is no way he can break through California and New York, and Gingrich will bleed enough of his conservative support in South to sink him.

[Oakvale]

Probably. That's not to say that I think he's an especially strong candidate, mind you, just that compared to Gingrich and Romney he's probably the best shot the GOP has if he turns down the culture war stuff.

[Niemeyerite]

Among Paul, Romney, Gingrich and himself? Sure he is.

-He's the most popular with the base (this is the biggest Paul problem).
-He tied Obama in that NC poll while Romney was trailing.
-Romney and Gingrich would make brillant Obama ads.
-He's a good debater, like Gingrich.
-He's not a flip-flopper like Romney is.
-He doesn't hide the fact that he lost an election to he senate in 2006. He ran as a conservative and lost. Romney ran to the left of Ted Kennedy, and tries to hide that, but republicans will soon realize that he was a liberal before he became a conservative hahaha...
-He's the youngest and the only one who has been a senator and a representative.

That said, he'd lose to Obama by 4-8 points.