Newt gave great speeches, but then started talking about going back to the moon!
Santorum was an empty suit, who spent most of his time in the Senate compromising.
The primayr system is set up for the establishment candidate to win, Reagan was an exception.
It was my take that Newt had way too much baggage to be elected. He couldn’t even take his own party, much less the Independents and the Democrats.
That left me with Santorum or Romney. I didn’t and still don’t think Santorum was a great choice, but he was head and shoulders better than Romney. I talked him up, but when you get down to it, my heart wasn’t really into it. He was his own worst enemy.
Was he an empty suit? Well, perhaps so. At least he wasn’t the suit filled with a Massachusetts’s Liberal.
I agree with your take on Reagan’s victory. He wasn’t supposed to win. Most people don’t give him any credit for it, but he did set back the globalist movement for about a decade. That was one of his best services to the nation.