I think this is because the “conservative base” is much less conservative than we thought it was. That is, both Santorum and Romney are big government, nanny-state, big spending members of the GOP establishment, and the only difference between them is that Santorum’s social positions are more conservative. If Santorum dropped out, all of his voters would go to Romney; if Gingrich dropped out, his voters would probably go to nobody or possibly to Ron Paul, who may be a nutcase but is offering an alternative to the GOP establishment vision.
My feeling is that, in the last few years, the voters as a whole (GOP and Dem) have come to accept the left’s Euro-state model for the US and now see a sort of soft-socialist welfare state as the default model.
I think this is because the “conservative base” is much less conservative than we thought it was.
Are you kidding? We just got the conservative candidate that is the most conservative on social issues and second on fiscal conservative. Just because Santorum is not as fiscally conservative as Newt does not mean that the conservative base is less conservative. We have NEVER been able to get a 100 percent social conservative as our nominee. So if we can get a 100 percent social conservative and a 90 percent fiscal conservative, that is much better than Ford, McCain, Dole, Bush I and maybe even Bush II. This is a miracle in process and I could not be more thrilled. This is history in the making.