Is Rick Santorum More Electable than Mitt Romney?

After months of polling in the single digits, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has emerged from the thinned-out GOP 2012 race as the closest challenger to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, considered the front-running candidate for most of the race. Santorum’s campaign began clicking when he essentially tied Romney in the Iowa caucuses in January. He watched former House Speaker Newt Gingrich momentarily grab flavor-of-the-moment status away from him, but then stunned doubters by winning February’s contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri (Missouri’s being a nonbinding primary that will award its delegates in March), bringing his delegate count up to 72 to Romney’s 123. Polls show Santorum and Romney neck-and-neck for Tuesday’s Michigan primary.

Santorum has rallied the support of social conservatives, a demographic that has resisted Romney. However, the very social views that have garnered Santorum enthusiasm from the far right have many worried about his odds in a general election against President Obama, particularly among gays, women, and conservatives more concerned with economic issues. Nevertheless, as Romney, whose campaign boasts a mechanical organization and a mighty war chest, struggles to secures his home state, let alone the nomination, others think that only Santorum can stir a conservative GOP base that has refused to coalesce around Romney. Here is the Debate Club’s take: Is Rick Santorum more electable than Mitt Romney?