Not quite number one just yet (Bryan Snyder/Reuters)
The first good news Rick Santorum has had all campaign season long (11/29-12/6 trendlines are in parens):
Even if Santorum's rise is real (PPP
did not show similar movement in their newest Iowa poll), is it in time to do him any good? The caucuses are less than a week away, and Santorum doesn't have the money or organization that Mitt Romney and Ron Paul do.
And even if he does emerge as the conservative dark horse in Iowa, can Santorum really do anything to stop Romney in New Hampshire? He's in such a deep hole there that it's hard to see him surging enough to make a difference in the Granite State even if he does win in Iowa. At least a Paul victory in the caucuses could conceivably propel him to a damaging (for Romney) second-place finish in NH.
So this last-minute Santorum emergence might actually be good news for Mittens—which would be bad news for us.