Rick's Roll

Nobody picked Rick Santorum to make it this far. Now he may be the last man standing between Mitt Romney and the Republican nomination

Andrew Cutraro for TIME

Despite a shoestring budget and a ragtag campaign, Santorum has surged into the lead in national poll.

Since the start of the Republican presidential campaign, eight major candidates have auditioned for the part of Mitt Romney's foil. Rick Santorum was the last to get a long look. The former Pennsylvania Senator lacks Michele Bachmann's Tea Party zeal, Rick Perry's swagger, Herman Cain's theatricality and Newt Gingrich's gift for the crowd-rousing zinger. When Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in January, his success seemed as if it might be a fleeting tribute to his huge investment of time in the state. Even as he held a victory bash at a cramped suburban Des Moines hotel with a bear pelt hanging...

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