US Republican race – now the focus will be on Rick Santorum

Each time the political parties get into this dance, things get more intense. This time is an especially interesting year in the Presidential race, with Obama having come down sharply to earth since his election just 3 years ago. His election promised to bring about a radical change in politics, some amount of moderation of the harsh politics between the Democratic and Republican party, and bring the country out of the depression it had got into (whether these be the wars it had got into, where soldiers and money were being spent in huge numbers, and without seemingly making too much change in the ground; and the recession that started with the crash in 2009 and continued with low morale and low levels of employment).
However, the President was somewhat of a disappointment, with an inability to take the country out of the economic downturn it had got into (although his supporters claim that he managed to prevent the fall of many eminent economic institutions of the US and prevented the country from getting into an even deeper recession). In addition, the Republican establishment was totally against him, and did whatever they could to oppose any measures he took. The Tea Party movement that came up was vehemently for a rationalization of the economic policies of the country, for reducing the high debt levels of the country, and also against the policies that Obama had been pushing. This movement, and a low level of confidence in the President, saw the Republican party making advances, getting a clear majority in the House and also reducing the strength of the Democratic Party in the Senate.
With this environment in place, and not much of a movement in terms of improvement in the economic situation, it seemed that the Presidential election was for the Republican Party to win, as long as they had a candidate who would appeal to the conservative base of the Republican Party and also the Independent voters who have supported Obama in the previous election. But there remains a problem – the list of candidates leading the Republican Party had to seem conservative enough so that the candidate can get past the primaries, and yet appeal to voters in the end. The only person from the list of candidates is Mitt Romney, but a seeming liberal who has supported abortion rights, who had a state health care plan similar to the one by Obama (and hugely hated by Republicans) and other policies (on all of which, Romney has gone back, or ‘flipped’), make him a difficult candidate for the GOP to support. But, on the other hand, he is the only likely candidate who is centered enough that he can draw an overall majority. But, any person who seems more conservative than Romney gets support (atleast for some time), and the latest was Rick Santorum, which is a staunch anti-abortion, against gay marriage, and other policies that make his a favorite among conservatives.
So, in a surprise, Rick Santorum, challenged Romney for the lead in the first primary, the Iowa caucus, and almost made it. And guess what, so far the Romney campaign had targeted Gingrich and Perry, seeing them as the primary contenders; now, with the sudden emergence of Santorum, he will become the main target of the Romney campaign. Already, one can see the impact of an increased focus, there is investigation about the earmarks he did, as well as his involvement with the companies which he promoted when he was a senator. Such articles would seem to portray the Senator as a lobbyist, which would discredit him very badly.