WASHINGTON - Republican Rick Santorum is looking to capitalize on a string of stunning victories that snapped his four-state losing streak and raised new questions about front-runner Mitt Romney's clout with conservatives.
Romney shrugged off his poor showing, but his losses Tuesday in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado laid bare his stubborn weakness just when it looked as if his party was beginning to embrace him.
Bringing up the rear of the Santorum surge: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who mostly skipped the contests and finished at or near the back of the pack in all three states.
Santorum cast the results as a victory for a purer form of conservatism than Romney has offered, heard more clearly by voters across the nation's midsection without a deafening TV air war that the former Massachusetts governor has dominated.
"Tonight, we had an opportunity to see what a campaign looks like when one candidate isn't outspent 5- or 10-to-1 by negative ads impugning their integrity and distorting their record. This is
a more accurate representation, frankly, of what the fall race will look like," a jubilant Santorum told a cheering crowd in St. Charles, Mo.
But it was far from clear that the former Pennsylvania senator, who has a post office box for a campaign headquarters and relies on volunteers to handle scheduling, can quickly turn the momentum into the millions of campaign dollars he would need to overcome Romney.
Still, he looked past the nomination fight.
"I don't stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama," Santorum said. On health care, cap and trade and the Wall Street bailout, he charged, "Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama."
In Denver, Romney congratulated his rival. The revived questions about Romney's appeal with conservatives at the party's core were even sharper in light of his aggressive push to court them in
recent days. Santorum's shoestring candidacy thrived. And the GOP nomination fight many in the party hoped would resolve itself after Super Tuesday now threatened to rumble past March 6 -- while Obama watches from his presidential perch in the White House, and waits.
"This was a good night for Rick Santorum," Romney told supporters in Denver on Tuesday night. He offered a bit of forced optimism: "We'll keep on campaigning down the road, but I expect
to become our nominee with your help."
Romney added, "When this primary season is over, we're going to stand united as a party behind our nominee to defeat Barack Obama."
He wasn't the only loser.
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