Here's a take from someone who thought Santorum KO'd Casey last night. I agree with the point that Santorum's aggressiveness seemed to be a very deliberate strategy which he used to beat on Casey during the debate and then tried to reframe to his advantage in his closing statement when he said:

"I'm a passionate guy. I'm tough, I'm a fighter. But you know what? I'm an Italian kid from a steel town. What do you expect from me? I'm a guy who had to grow up having to scratch and claw. I wasn't born into a family that had a great name. My dad's an immigrant to this country. I've worked hard, just like you do in western Pennsylvania to fight for the things you believe in."

Maybe Santorum's performance will play with voters, maybe it won't. But even if it does, last night isn't likely to change any of the underlying dynamics in this race, all of which are still working against him. Three weeks out from the election Santorum is an incumbent who is polling between 36-41%. Those numbers indicate fundamental problems with his candidacy which are unlikely to be remedied by a single debate performance - no matter how good it might have been strategically.

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