Santorum spent his time talking about energy, regulations, manufacturing, and the differences between him and the Obama administration.
The key word you fail to understand is “TALK”. That is as far as Santorum gets with it. He has no actual plan laid out, just talk about laying them out. And most of his ideas are similar to detailed plans that Newt Gingrich has already written and listed in order. (Guess where he got those ideas)
Newt has already done the hard work and has a solid plan, all Santorum has, is TALK and knows what you want to hear.
And Santorum may have been subdued when you saw him, but he has been doing the very opposite to the Press and you are seeing the result in the recent polls.