Peggy Nance of Concerned Women for America in Fox News opinion:

... After playing the field for weeks, women in Iowa finally settled down with their man. In fact, CNN entrance polls showed that the majority of women were supporting Santorum at twenty-seven percent (despite the sweater vest). It wasn’t a woman candidate this time, but I’m convinced that it will happen.

...Santorum’s appeal to women and evangelicals centers on a desire for authenticity. Rick’s been consistent in behavior and record. His stance on the sanctity of life and traditional marriage gained the voters’ attention.

His personal story of a strong marriage and eight children, including baby Gabriel, who died, and beautiful Bella, who is severely handicapped and the apple of her father’s eye is beyond reproach. His record in the U.S. Senate is one of unwavering support of conservative principles. His foreign policy acumen is equal to anyone on the debate stage.

A sign of Iowa's effect on national support among GOP primary voters:

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, coming off his photo finish with Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses, is now in second place among Republican voters in the race for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken the night after the caucuses, shows Romney again in first place with support from 29% of Likely Republican Primary Voters, followed by Santorum with 21%. -- Rasmussen

Of course, all three are NOM Marriage Pledge signers.

The Cato Institute (which mostly favors gay marriage) sharpens their attacks on Santorum. Fair enough. It's a horse race. But we were struck by this sentence in Michael Tanner's essay:

"After all, the Tea Party and 2010 elections were largely about economic issues and the desire to limit the size, cost, and intrusiveness of government. And those issues are not Santorum’s strong suit."

Who won Tea Party voters in Iowa would you guess?

Yup, Santorum snagged more of their votes than any other candidate, according to this CNN entrance poll.

Jonathan Last at the new web-only publication The Daily writes about the Santorum surge for a tech-friendly audience:

On Dec. 20, Rick Santorum polled at 5 percent in Iowa, placing him ahead of only the MIA Jon Huntsman in the state. Although Mitt Romney officially won the contest, Santorum captured 25 percent of caucus voters last night, essentially tying the “inevitable” Romney. Santorum came from further behind, faster, than anyone in caucus history. It was Rudy, Hoosiers, and the Miracle on Ice, rolled into one — the biggest electoral upset in modern primary politics.

And despite what some of the spinners are selling, the entire race is changed. Let’s work our way around the horn.

Rick Santorum: No money, no organization, no compelling personal story or shtick, Santorum surged by doing two things: He sold a vision of the country that embraced the culture war and conservative values and he formulated a populist economic plan that offered a different twist on the small-government line being taken by the rest of the field. And the real killer app was that Santorum found a way to marry his economics to family-formation and middle class mores.

The received wisdom is that Santorum can’t be a factor going forward, but it’s not clear why that’s true. He has a message. He connects with voters. Look at the exit polls and it’s clear that conservatives, evangelicals and tea party voters like him.

Mitt Romney ended up winning Iowa by 8 votes. Here's how he addressed his energized supporters:

Slate's John Dickerson:

... According to entrance polls, of those voters who wanted a true conservative, Santorum got 36 percent and Romney got just 1 percent. (That is not a misprint.)

Though the top two candidates tied, Santorum was the big winner. Weeks ago, the smart people thought that tonight he'd be addressing an empty ballroom of lonely, sad balloons. Instead, the crowd at his victory party is so thick I've practically got supporters on my lap as I type this. Santorum is now the only Flavor of the Week candidate to actually win anything, which makes him a genuine threat to Romney, at least for the moment.

... One of the open questions going into the caucus was how much evangelical voters would participate. They turned out in the identical numbers as the last caucus, with 58 percent of the voters self-identifying as evangelical. They helped Santorum with his surge. "Everyone talks about the economy," said Bill Yewell of Augden, "but Santorum comes at it from a different way. If we take care of the social issues and the family, the economy will come around."