DonkeyHotey/Flickr.com

DonkeyHotey/Flickr.com

In this week's edition of Winners and Loser, we talk about Rick Santorum's victories in 3 primaries earlier this week, and the issue of religion and the GOP.

Winner: Less than a week ago, Rick Santorum was largely viewed as a non-factor in the Republican presidential race. Following his stunning win in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, Santorum lost one primary after another. Celebrating his seeming demise, the gossip site Gawker.com even ran a story on Feb. 5 called “Santorum Would Like to Remind You That He’s Still Running.” It painted the former Pennsylvania senator as delusional for remarking, “This race is a long, long way from being over.”

I chimed in as well, choosing Santorum as my loser of the week because his momentum in the race had apparently ground to a stop. After all, although Santorum performed well in the Republican debates leading up to the South Carolina and Florida primaries, he made little impact in those states. Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, the respective winners of those contests, naturally surfaced as the focus of the race. But that’s completely changed since Tuesday, when Santorum swept the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses as well as the Missouri primary (which won’t actually count in terms of delegates). When everyone counted him out, Santorum believed in his campaign. Before Tuesday’s contests, he told Fox News, “I think we're going to do very well here in Minnesota. I think we're going to do very well in Colorado.” Boy, was he right.

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Loser: Given the high number of evangelical Christians who identify as Republicans, one would expect them to know a thing or two about Mark 3:25. That highly cited Biblical verse discusses the importance of unity, declaring: “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Santorum’s sweep of two caucuses and one primary Tuesday certainly indicates that the GOP is divided. After eight Republican presidential contests, there’s no clear frontrunner for the party.

It’s no overstatement to describe the Republican presidential race as a game of musical chairs featuring Santorum, Romney and Newt Gingrich. Ron Paul is the only candidate who’s yet to win a contest, but even he outperformed Romney in Minnesota on Tuesday. What does this mean? Either the Republican electorate is extremely fickle, or conservative voters simply don’t like any of the GOP candidates very much. Whatever the case, it’s great news for President Barack Obama’s reelection bid. If Republicans can’t settle on a candidate, it’s pretty unlikely that their eventual nominee will be able to shore up enough support to defeat the president.