I wondered whether he would have cultural traction outside his Pennsylvania, Northeast/Midwestern roots. It appears that ideology/theology counts more than region:
A poll released Saturday showed Romney at 30 percent in South Carolina with Gingrich in second place with 23 percent. Santorum was third with 19 percent. But the polling firm, Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling company, noted that "the candidate with the best chance of beating Romney in South Carolina is Santorum" because "he edges out Romney as the candidate with the best favorability rating."
Chip Felkel, a Greenville-based political consultant who is not working for any presidential campaign, agreed. "This guy (Santorum) is the only guy who has any momentum, any enthusiasm — at least to the scale to possibly upset the apple cart," he said. "The rest of them have just dug too deep of a hole."
A reader adds:
Not to forget: Rick Santorum was raised in rural Berkeley Co., West Virginia and in equally rural Butler Co., PA. And James Carville's old comment about Pennsylvania is so true: "it's got Philadelphia on one end and Pittsburgh on the other, and a whole lot of Alabama in between."
The Dish 