Last night "belonged to Rick Santorum, who went three-for-three in Tuesday's Republican contests," as very early this morning.
The former Pennsylvania senator took first place in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.
But as NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving points out in a column that will be on It's All Politics later, Tuesday's caucuses and "beauty contest" (in Missouri) basically drew relatively tiny turnouts largely composed of conservatives who are very committed to Santorum and were willing to gather even if no delegates were at stake — not a cross-section of Republicans.
That's why, as Ron notes, some news outlets are using the world "meaningless" to describe Tuesday's outcomes.
Still, many of the morning-after analyses are looking at Santorum's wins as at least dealing a blow to front-runner Mitt Romney and potentially something more:
-- Santorum "has dramatically resuscitated a campaign that was bordering on irrelevant," .
-- The former senator's victories are "a major boon to his previously floundering presidential campaign," .
-- Santorum "jolted the Republican presidential race Tuesday with a three-state sweep of nominating contests in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota, puncturing Mitt Romney's claim to be the unstoppable front-runner," .
-- "Santorum Revives Campaign," .
-- "Another Twist For GOP As Santorum Fares Well," .
Gawker captured the difficulty of figuring out what Tuesday's results mean even before the votes were in. "Tonight's Very Important Republican Races Are Also Very Unimportant," .
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