[af_vet_rr]

Why Santorum and not Perry or Newt?

Perry doesn't have enough supporters to matter in the long run and has taken himself out of the race, and Newt has too much money backing him for the time being.

Paul maybe hoping that Newt and Romney damage each other or spend a lot of their money dragging each other down, and then he swoops in when they run a little low on cash and dumps millions into new attack ads.

Santorum on the other hand, Paul probably has more money backing him than Santorum, and Santorum was able to pick up a bunch of undecideds in Iowa, and Paul wants undecideds. They are the easiest pickings.

Of course, Paul should not be a major player at all - his backers are mostly Libertarians. South Carolina being an open primary is going to help those Libertarians cross over to the GOP primary and vote for him unfortunately. Numbskulls in South Carolina finally figured out that maybe they shouldn't have an open primary, but it's too late to do anything about it.

If Paul were a Republican, he'd be going after Romney more, but if you're Ron Paul, there is no way in hell you'll be able to get any Romney supporters over to your side. He may have decided that's a lost cause.

[octex]

Agree. ....The open caucas process in IA and open primaries in NH and SC just permit the Dems to “select” the GOP frontrunner they feel they can most easily defeat. They have no problem voting for a weak GOP candidate because their Dem candidate is unopposed in their party.

What occurs is that the more qualified/Conservative candidates find it difficult to get contributions and have to drop out of the race; leaving another lame GOP candidate, like McCain was.