Santorum Wins Nothing, But Talks The Coded Language Of GOP Racism

And what a great made-for-TV story it is, too. A neck-snapping turnaround for the former senator from Pennsylvania, who had peaked in Iowa five weeks ago and promptly disappeared. Lacking money and organization, he finished out of the money in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada.

Now he roars back and wins big in Missouri and Minnesota, two middle-sized states that might claim to speak for the mainstream of the Midwest. Even more impressive is his narrower win in Colorado, a Western state Mitt Romney had won in 2008.

But wait! Some other news sources — not locked in the life-and-death struggle of cable news — say it was all meaningless. No delegates were chosen or committed or bound (or whatever it is they do with delegates at this stage of the game).

How can that be? It's one thing to be told at midnight that a race is too close to call. That's suspenseful, and suspense is good for keeping us all up and watching. But it's another thing entirely to be told a race, however close, is essentially meaningless.

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