There is something to be said here, perhaps, about the conventional media conversation and how voters react to it. Rick Santorum was essentially written out of it by the time voters went to the polls in New Hampshire, since Romney was regarded as the Iowa winner. If Santorum were Gingrich, I suspect Newt would have used a media insult like that to his advantage, as a badge of honor. But in the case of Santorum, it fed the narrative about him: That Santorum cannot pull off a win after 2006.