If there was a late surge for Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi, I didn't feel it the last few days on the ground there.  But maybe we got a taste of it on Tuesday when the Governor of Alabama said he had voted for Rick Santorum - he evidently wasn't the only one to make that decision in the final hours before the polls opened.

So, instead of Newt Gingrich winning two primaries in the Deep South, Rick Santorum handily won in Alabama and grabbed a two point victory in Mississippi, giving his campaign a new post-Super Tuesday boost.

"We did it again," Santorum said to big cheers in Lafayette, Louisiana, as the former U.S. Senator got a head start on the campaign in the Bayou State, which votes a week from Saturday.

While Santorum's unlikely bid for the White House took another big step forward with his Southern Daily Double, new questions were raised again about GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney's appeal south of the Mason-Dixon line.

"I don't think there was a single poll that had me winning Mississippi," Santorum acknowledged to his backers, as many thought that Mitt Romney's establishment advantage in the Magnolia State would provide a victory.

But Santorum has obviously tapped into a network of strong supporters in the evangelical and religious communities in a number of states, and that has provided him with a developing campaign infrastructure of sorts.

And now, he owns a three state winning streak - in the lower 48 - Kansas, Alabama and Mississippi. He will be favored to make it four in a row on Saturday in caucuses in Missouri.

While Romney's lead in delegates didn't really change, Santorum took a giant step forward to becoming the main challenger to Romney - even though Newt Gingrich was rejecting talk that he should get out of the race.

Santorum could have a chance to do well next week in Illinois, where a Chicago Tribune poll in recent days showed him just a few points behind Romney.

Santorum was also slightly ahead in a WWL-TV poll from Louisiana, which had Romney in second, with Gingrich also in the mix in third place.

As we have talked about repeatedly, momentum is so important in these races. Santorum grabbed some in February, survived setbacks around Super Tuesday, and has now come up with two longshot wins in the Deep South.

Newt Gingrich was supposed to win these states, not Santorum.

Mitt Romney supposedly was bubbling up in the polls, not Santorum.

But it was Santorum in the winner's circle, not Gingrich or Romney.

As this race refuses to end.