Rick Santorum just took the stage and congratulated Mitt Romney, but promised a different result in Nevada this week. First Santorum thanks the audience for their prayers as he took a few days off from the campaign to care for his daughter, Bella, who had pneumonia. She's getting out of the hospital, Santorum says. The campaign just gave him a giant card for Bella. Santorum says that "Republicans can do better" than they did in Florida. He says the dialogue is "going downhill," and he didn't get involved in the "melee of negativism," which he calls a "mud-wrestling match where everyone gets away dirty." He praises Romney's private sector experience and Gingrich's "considerable knowledge." He's trying to play himself as a peacemaker. "Let's focus on the real issue, which is defeating Barack Obama." The crowd goes nuts. It sounds like a smallish, mostly empty room.

"We're not going to do that with mudslinging," Santorum says. "Tomorrow, we're gonna give a speech on Romneycare and Obamacare," he promises. He says they're going to go on to the next states—including Missouri, which he pronounces as "Mizzureah." "We need someone who can be a conservative nominee," Santorum says, and Gingrich had his chance in Florida, to present himself as the conservative non-Romney candidate. Gingrich tried, but "it didn't work," Santorum says. He tells Nevada, "If you want a conservative, please vote for me. Thank you, God bless. Thank you." And that's it. That's maybe the most overt plea to be the not-Romney I've seen in the 2012 campaign.