Santorum is a ‘David’ of his own making

Still, despite being dramatically outspent by the Romney campaign and its super PAC allies, Mr. Santorum is putting up a fight. His weekend win in Kansas’ caucuses catapulted him ahead of Mr. Gingrich and into second place in the race for the 1,144 delegates needed to snag the nomination, bolstering the Santorum argument that he is the strongest conservative alternative to Mr. Romney.

He carried that momentum into Tuesday, when more than 100 delegates were up for grabs in Alabama, where he won again, and in Mississippi, where he was leading late Tuesday night. There were also caucuses in Hawaii and American Samoa.

The Santorum camp, though, has signaled that it is aware it may have to settle for blocking Mr. Romney from getting to 1,144 delegates.

If Mr. Romney falls short, Team Santorum argues that many of the uncommitted delegates will swing toward their man at the convention.

But folks on the ground say Mr. Santorum isn’t doing the kind of legwork required to make that long-shot strategy work. In Iowa, where he narrowly won the caucuses, locals say they haven’t heard from the Santorum campaign lately.

“It’s like an apparition,” said Kevin McLaughlin, of the Polk County, Iowa, GOP. “He was here and now he is gone. I mean, there are people who are still here and support him, but I don’t get anything like the organized depth I see out of the Ron Paul people.”

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