Wow! What a night. How crazy a night was it? Let me tell you: Rick Santorum's piece of shale is already on Twitter.

A few random questions:

When will it be okay for the media to completely ignore Ron Paul? He hasn't won a state yet, and he came in a distant third place in Michigan and an even more distant fourth place in Arizona. Ron Paul's supporters continue to whine about their man's lack of coverage, but he's arguably a less-influential candidate than Newt fucking Gingrich at this point.

Speaking of Gingrich: Is it possible that the Gingrich campaign could come back to life for a fifth (or sixth—I lose track at this point) time? Santorum was so erratic over the last few weeks that voters could be shopping for another not-Romney, and there's frankly not a whole lot of product left on the shelves.

When will the Romney campaign realize that they need some sort of a message beyond harping on Obama's failures? People don't elect candidates who can only identify themselves by what they are not. (In retrospect, Barack Obama actually spent a relatively small amount of time making a case against George W. Bush in 2008; though Republicans kept hitting him for running an insubstantial campaign, he very clearly defined what he stood for and what he would do when he got in office.) Romney is entirely reactionary. Between now and the Republican convention, he's going to need to explain what he's all about to voters, and it would help if he started doing that now.

Can Santorum keep on-message? I thought he did a decent job with his speech tonight, although his argument that America didn't need "the smart and the elite of this country to manage us" smacked of more anti-intellectualism. Most voters don't feel comfortable with candidates arguing against colleges, or talking about puking, for that matter. If Santorum stays away from the social issues and sticks to the economy, he can probably beat Romney at his own game, because he talks about being poor in a way that voters can believe. But when he starts obsessing over other peoples' pants, he looks like a freak. Which way will he go? If Santorum can hold onto his lead in Ohio through next Tuesday, the race is still contestable. But if Romney wins Ohio, even if he doesn't win a single southern state outside of Virginia, the contest is basically over. I don't think Santorum will drop out anytime soon, but Ohio is his last chance to make any headway in the electability battle, which, at this point in the game, is the only issue that matters for Republicans.