This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, February 8, 2012. I'm Caleb Brown.

Rick Santorum's victory in three states has shaken up the GOP presidential race.

His ideas are, to be clear, largely the opposite of Libertarian, but could the crushing defeat

of the purest form of a socially conservative Neocon finally force the GOP to change its ways.

John Samples, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government,

offers his thoughts.

It means that his campaign is revived.

It looked like it was doomed at the promise that he came out of Iowa with that he might become the major alternative to Mitt Romney, which until now seemed to be slowly petering out, has been revived, so he may hold out opportunity of fighting

with Newt Gingrich to be the major alternative to Romney, and if he can reach that position the uncertainty and

lack of enthusiasm for Romney is such that Centaurum could well become a major alternative to him and could even perhaps beat him and become the nominee.

Rick Santoram is actively hostile to Libertarian ideas.

You note that he refers to it as radical individualism, as if that

is a particularly dangerous thing. He often refers to that we have to participate in our government and that it helps us participate in something larger than self.

This is sort of a standard line for a lot of Republicans and

Democrats of late, especially successful ones. So it would seem that

libertarians would not have any reason really to support Rick Santorum.

He's supported a lot of policies that are not popular among libertarians.

So what would be the upshot of a Rick Santorum nomination?

Well I think in a strange way, there's a libertarian case to be made for Rick Santorum's nomination, but though not for his election as president.

The first part of the case for Santorum is that he, after 20 years or so in which Christian conservatives have really flooded

into and identified with the Republican Party and become a major force in the Republican

Party.

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