Lawrence O'Donnell went ahead and stated the bleeding frothing obvious earlier this week: "Rick Santorum’s campaign will be ending soon." Can't argue with that. Rick's not raising any money, he's not making any inroads with Republican primary voters in Iowa or New Hampshire or anywhere else, and those adorable eggheads at Slate were wrong: the "frothy mix" definition of santorum has not lost its search primacy. SpreadingSantorum.com is still #1.

As we look forward to the end of Rick Santorum's campaign—and no one is looking forward to it more than I am—we shouldn't be confused about what Rick Santorum was actually out there campaigning for. I hate having to break this any little old ladies who sent Rick checks after he explained that marriage is a napkin and gay marriage is a paper towel, but Santorum was never running for president. A man who lost his Senate seat by 18 points—and lost it to an empty suit like Bob Casey—would have to be more delusional than even Rick Santorum to think he could get his ass elected president. Santorum can't even top Barack Obama in the polls in his home state of Pennsylvania. President? He never stood a chance. And he knew it.

Rick Santorum was never running for president. He was campaigning for four more years on Fox News. Santorum—who was turned out of office in 2006, a political eternity ago, and didn't accomplish much when he was in office—was going to share the stage at GOP debates with the actual candidates, maybe pick up a few delegates in Iowa and South Carolina, and secure a primetime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. And then, in 2013, Santorum was going to stride into Roger Ailes' office and demand a big fat raise—on account of his greatly enhanced national profile—to come back to Fox News as a paid contributor.

But that script depended on one thing: Santorum had to run a plausible campaign; he couldn't embarrass himself. But Santorum has performed so badly, his campaign has been such a disaster, that he's going to have to beg Roger Ailes for his old job back. Santorum trails Fred Karger, the openly gay Republican stunt-candidate, in some polls. (Looks like God was just fucking with you, Rick.) He's made himself into a laughingstock.

Santorum thought his record of rabid anti-gay bigotry would help him raise enough money to run a plausible campaign. It didn't. Anti-gay bigotry remains hugely important to the GOP base, of course, because beating up on the queers makes folks in red states—with their higher rates of divorce, teen pregnancy, and out-of-wedlock births—feel like they're right with God. But anti-gay bigotry isn't enough anymore. Because they're all anti-gay bigots now. Bachmann's a lunatic bigot, Perry's a Confederate bigot, Palin's a sub-literate bigot, Romney's an opportunistic bigot, Gingrich's a hypocritical bigot. And Rick Santorum?

He's yesterday's bigot.