Santorum and Gingrich Together?

The only way to defeat Mitt Romney is clear: Santorum and Gingirch need to team up. Now for all those who have written off Gingrich, please remember that he is still winning the polls in South Carolina, and has a fair 13% in New Hampshire. Santorum, on the other hand has little traction yet in NH or SC, but his surge from Iowa has yet to crystallize, meaning he can only go upward.

Romney, still viewed as the overall frontrunner, still does not have the support of the Republican base. Pundits insist that he is the inevitable GOP candidate, but I don't quite see it.

Never have we had an election cycle like this, in which alternative, and generally weaker candidates are all propped up for their moment in the sun in order to defeat the enemy-within, moderate Mitt Romney, only to have wilted.

Santorum, on the other hand, and as mentioned before, is being propped up while votes are being counted. A surge in January is 10x more valuable than a surge in August (Bachmann), September (Perry), October (Cain), November (Cain/Gingrich), and even December (Gingrich/Paul).

This combination of good timing, as well as Evangelicals' abject mistrust of Romney and his off-putting forward march mean a very brutal, bloody battle going forward. The only way to stop the bleeding is unification, which does not seem like it will happen any time soon. Romney has shown little interest in courting Evangelicals, and expects to win the nomination without them, much in the same way as McCain in '08.

If Santorum and Gingrich strike a deal, team up, and unite the Evangelicals and other hard line conservatives, Romney can be taken down. The ideal scenario would be to wait until after NH and SC. If Gingrich emerges as the clear alternative to Romney, then he should offer Santorum his V.P. spot in order to join his team and bring his votes with him, and vice versa if Santorum somehow emerges.

The only dark horse is Huntsman. His Super Pac just bought some air time in SC for the first time, and he is still polling around a respectable 12% in NH. Respectable, but not sufficient. Huntsman needs a Santorum-like surge in order to gain any momentum from NH and beyond.