Santorum Surges Ahead in Polls, Appeals to Hard Right We now know of at least two tactics that work really well in the 2012 Republican nominating contests - negative ads fueled by deep corporate pockets, and appeals to the most intolerant, hard-right elements of the party. Once upon a time (like a month ago), attack ads helped Newt Gingrich mount a real challenge to Mitt Romney, and then helped Mr. Romney beat back that challenge. The second dynamic is propelling Rick Santorum from also-ran to statistical dead heat with Mr. Romney for first place. Two polls that came out on Monday - by the Pew Research Center and Gallup - show that Mr. Santorum, who was languishing near Ron Paul territory only a couple of weeks ago, is now the choice of around 30 percent of Republican primary voters. A New York Times/CBS News poll released this morning confirmed these results - it pegs Mr. Santorum at 30 percent to Mr. Romney's 27 percent. If you think I'm exaggerating when I say "most intolerant" and "hard-right," I suggest you read up on this past weekend's CPAC conference. That gathering of right-wing political activists is mandatory attendance for Republican candidates like Mr. Santorum and Mr. Romney. Sarah Palin is still a huge favorite there. For the candidates, the idea is to persuade the right wing that you always have and always will believe every single thing they believe with all your heart and soul. No deviation is permitted. You have to be as anti-abortion as possible, as well as anti-tax, anti-immigration, pro-death penalty, and pro-spending cuts. You don't necessarily have to demand a repeal of child labor laws, but it couldn't hurt. And you have to hate Barack Obama much, much more than everyone else there. Mr. Romney had a really hard time pulling this off, because he didn't claim to be a right-winger until fairly recently and everyone knows he's done that to secure the nomination. Mr. Santorum, on the other, speaks fluent right-winglish. He started out his speech by arguing that it was past time to "compromise, to do what's politically reasonable," and that the presidency wouldn't be worth winning for the Republicans if Mr. Romney were the nominee. "We will no longer abandon and apologize for the policies and principles that made this country great in exchange for a hollow victory in November," he said. Mr. Santorum, who came on stage with most of his large family, including his wife Karen, "the rock on which I stand upon," couched much of his speech in the language of Reagan-style trickle-down economics (at one point suggesting that cutting taxes for the very rich would help the very poor). He also pushed hard on an extreme social agenda. Mr. Santorum warned that President Obama's health care reform would "crush economic freedom." He said Americans would "have to pay tribute to Washington in order to get the care you need for your children." He said Mr. Obama was forcing the Catholic Church to pay for birth control services. He said liberals had invented the idea of man-made global warming. That none of this is true did not bother Mr. Santorum's audience one bit. The crowd cheered each of those lines. I've never thought Mitt Romney was much of a candidate, but will the Republicans actually nominate someone as far along on the loony fringe as Mr. Santorum? It will be interesting to see how far Mr. Santorum can take this new surge of his. I'm sure that Mr. Obama's team is hoping he can take it very far indeed.