I'm sorry to disappoint you, but neither Rick Santorum nor Newt Gingrich would have been a winning GOP candidate. Santorum comes across as a decent guy but wouldn't even be able to win his own state. And Gingrich just crawled out from under a rock after almost 15 years out of politics to run in the GOP primary this year. It turns out he spent most of those 15 years working as a hack Beltway lobbyist, which means
he is part of the problem and therefore would be an abysmal candidate.
In the immortal words of one wag from Don Imus' radio show: "Jerry Sandusky will be a special guest on Sesame Street before Newt Gingrich is ever elected president."