“Both Santorum and Newt were deeply flawed as candidates and both got beat.”
How was Santorum ‘deeply flawed’?
Two Santorum flaws that immediately come to mind:
1) Pro-"manufacturing" industrial policy. One either understand and trusts the free market to allocate resources or else one does not. Santorum does not.
2) Sloppy and undisciplined messaging. Santorum was quick to say things like "UC campuses don't teach American history." or "Calls for increased college enrollment are elitist,", etc. There was some truth behind both of these lines but he let himself be mischaracterized and put on the defensive by going off half-cocked.