Well, conservative Christians in Iowa went for Santorum in 2012. How does that not make Santorum best placed? Is there a theory that Santorum benefited from crossover Democrats in 2012?
Not sure what you are getting out. Santorum in 2016 similar to Huckabee will be pushed to take conservative Christian votes...at least as long as Cruz is the biggest threat.
Santorum no less than Huckabee is a Bush-Rove faux candidate. I’m not sure why the emphasis on Huckabee.
In Iowa caucuses, Huckabee and Santorum were the main not-Mitt Romney candidates (McCain campaign looked dead in 2008 Iowa). Cruz certainly and Walker probably are the not-Jeb candidates now. No room for Huck and Rick.