So there it is, the one true alternative to Mitt Romney emerged last night, Rick Santorum.

Rick Santorum won big last night winning contests, some handily, in Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri.  Not a strong second place, winning.  Some people will understandably try to downplay the nature of the victory pointing out the difference between primaries and caucuses and delegate allocations, but all that misses the point.

It is now either Rick Santorum or imminently evitable Romney.

Rick Santorum has been written off time and time again by pundits and pedants, only to once again, and perhaps finally emerge as the conservative alternative to the militantly moderate Romney. The reason for this is two-fold.  One—Santorum has shown himself to be a consistent and principled candidate throughout this interminable primary season.  His debate performances have been stellar and consistently improving.  He absolutely left Mitt Romney stumbling with his dismantling of Romneycare and the mandate a few weeks ago. Further, he has managed to mostly stay out of the personal and vicious mudslinging that has been the dominant focus of the campaign for the last 6 weeks.  Simply put, he has been a superior candidate to his rivals and getting better.  So all that is one.  The second reason is simple.  Obama.

I think that Obama’s tyrannical and constitutionally dismissive actions over the HHS mandate have reminded Republican primary goers exactly what is at stake in this election.  They have been reminded of what seemed so clear in 2009, that Obamacare signals and initiates the Bataan death march for liberty in this country and the first liberty to go is religious liberty.

I think that Republican primary voters collectively said this week, “Oh, yeah.  Now I remember.”  They looked at the remaining field of candidates and rightly surmised that Romney is probably the weakest candidate who can challenge Obama on the key issues of the day.  There has been one candidate who has stood up for life and liberty like no other candidate and that candidate is Rick Santorum.

The road to the nomination in in a party notorious for nominating the weakest candidate possible for fear of actual contrast is still very much up hill.  But the choices are now clear.  Do we nominate Obama-lite in Romney or choose a candidate who can effectively challenge the President on the key issues of the day.

Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado chose the latter.  What say you?