We like to link to our friends at NumbersUSA's live blogging of the GOP Presidential candidates' debates, but they seem to have given up in disgust and didn't follow the South Carolina contest that ended a few minutes ago. For Numbers' numero uno Roy Beck's blood pressure, probably just as well.

The question of illegal immigration was raised, as usual from the floor, and candidates tried clumsily to straddle it, showing they really fear its power. But, in a moment all too reminiscent of Michele Bachmann's flinching in October, Senator Rick Santorum failed to cut through the pious platititudes about illegal-bad-but-LEGAL-VERY-GOOD and say that legal immigration is just too high—even though he had won NumbersUSA's heart by being the first candidate to say just that only last week. We''ll post the transcript, if we have the stomach, tomorrow.

Santorum, like Bachmann, could have put the legal immigration issue in play. He flinched. The odds now must be the GOP primaries will conclude without it happening at all.  Whether it happens in the federal election depends on whether the DC consultant parasites who will batten on the campaign have the imagination and the nerve—and/or if the candidate has the will to win.