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by Jen Green

Rumors of Rick Santorum’s (campaign) demise were greatly exaggerated.

In his debate performance last night, Santorum showed he’s not done fighting, taking swings at both “frontrunners” Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. In fact, his dismantling of Mitt Romney on the truth about RomneyCare completely changed the tone of the debate. But, more about that in a minute.

I was a little concerned when he opened the debate with the “I agree with Governor Romney” line. In fact, I thought maybe he was planning to audition for the veep slot. Then, he went on to agree with Romney again and attack Newt Gingrich. Then—I was sure he was vying for veep.

But, I was wrong. Yeah, it happens.

Santorum was as close to brilliant tonight as I’ve seen him in a debate. As an aside, I’m not sure why he saved this performance for a state in which he’s decided he’s not really competing, but smarter minds than mine can figure that out. The minute he stepped out of the gate tonight  it was “on,” as he said when he left Iowa.

The top headline coming out of this debate should be this exchange between Santorum and Mitt Romney. Santorum has admirably been consistent in attacking Mitt when no other candidate seems to have the guts to do it. Last night was no different. He did not let Romney get away with the blatantly false veneer he painted with his answer on RomneyCare–and with true bulldog like tendencies–he delivered the kill shot against Romney over Wolf Blitzer’s repeated attempts to stop the conversation. (Why try to stop it there? Because it was hurting Romney?) By reminding us what a debate between ObamaCare and RomneyCare will look like, Santorum reveals the complete lunacy of nominating a liberal like Romney to run against a liberal like Obama.

Bravo, Santorum. Now folks are saying he might have the opportunity to vie for second in Florida . . . that might be a bit farfetched, but heck, in this crazy primary anything is possible.