I am all for him getting the nomination, he won't ever beat Obama. You can't beat Obama without getting independents or women. And he won't get the woman vote with the way he has been going.
Trump will run a 3rd party should Santorum win and I will jump on that train before I would ever support a Santorum run. He would not carry one state. He is a crook who wears his christianity on his stupid sweater vest. He's fooled a lot of people, he won 3 worthless straw polls where the far, far right Christian vote came out and everyone else stayed home, he did it with less than 5% of the vote turned out. Not one delegate was awarded and we got these nut cases trying to make a point that he can beat Obama, he would lose in an absolute landslide, as women and independents will dump him like a hot rock.
Santorum is running as a conservative like Nixon did, and Reagan, and Bush the Eldre in 88 and like W.
He is not running like a RINO, like Ford, Dole, Bush the Elder after exposing himself as a RINO, and McCain.
All the conservatives won and the moderates lost.
Given your scenario the exact opposite should have happened.
Why didnt it?
Because 45% of Americans self-identify as conservative, 35% as moderate and 20% as liberal.
All a Republican has to do is run a solid conservative campaign, take a third of independents and he wins by a landslide.
If the GOP runs a moderate to get more of the middle, they might increase their one third to half, gaining one sixth of 35% ( alittle more than 5% of the total vote) but gives up one third to half the conservative base, 15% to 22% of the total electorate.
If Trump the douche-bag runs as a moderate, he takes the lions share of the moderates
(23%), but he wont even dent the conservative base, while Obama still takes all the libtards and a third of the moderates (32%), leaving Santorum with the 45% solid conservative plurality that winds up with another landslide.
Simple math dude.
So I leave yo with this thought:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0xYxsbG8Jw&feature=related]Lyle Lovett - Don't cry a Tear - YouTube[/ame]