Who would be the worse nominee for the Republicans in 2012 - Santorum or Gingrich?

Santorum would have not been a great nominee, but I actually am inclined to think Newt would be worse. Santorum, extreme social conservatism aside, was somewhat populist on his economic agenda and would have not have made the major gaffes Romney made that turned so many in the working class against him. Tone down the social conservative rhetoric and the outdated Bush era foreign policy pronouncements, and pair him with someone like Jon Huntsman, and he might have stood a chance.
 
I'd say Gingrich, mainly because the Democrats can find more dirt on his record.

Santorum's a hardliner, fire-brand, and in some cases just plain weird, but Gingrich has more material to work against. Not saying that Santorum would do much better, though.
 
Emperor of the Moon N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of Civilization's Rules and Leader (Perhaps) of The Civilizing Forces, is not a man to be trifled with.

Head-to-head polling had Santorum doing slightly worse than Romney and Newt doing much worse.
 
Both would do equally bad IMHO. I doubt Santorum would tone down his social conservatism enough to not scare off moderates and his foreign policy would also be alienating, this to me outweighs his somewhat populist economic stances. Nutty Newt would be easier to attack, but he'd also be much more willing to pander than Santorum would be. It's pretty sad that Romney was the best candidate the GOP could whip up in 2012 (Huntsman was too honest for the Tea Party crowd). While I'm glad the GOP didn't win, Obama was beatable.
 
Newt had a lot of baggage, decades worth of baggage. He makes Hillary look squeaky clean. Santorum at least had his populism to somewhat compensate for his weaknesses. Newt has lots of baggage, he's gaffe-prone, he's just as right-wing if not more so than Romney and he'd likely melt down on the national stage as he often does ('95 shutdown, before Iowa, before Florida). Newt had many of Romney's weaknesses, few strengths, and more weaknesses and a fragile temperament. Newt is a very weak candidate.
 
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