The American Spectator

Miami Beach, Florida — Good news: Rick Santorum says his daughter has “had a miraculous turnaround” and, while she’s suffering from pneumonia and will be in the hospital several more days, she’s in good enough condition that her father feels comfortable returning to the campaign trail. He won’t be returning to Florida, however. His campaign released a schedule to reporters Sunday night that takes him to Missouri and Minnesota on Monday and to Colorado on Tuesday morning; all three states hold primaries on February 7. Santorum will be in Nevada, which holds its caucus on February 4, when the Florida results come in on Tuesday night.

Despite being off the campaign trail, Santorum has actually risen slightly in the Florida polls; in the RealClearPolitics rolling average, he’s gone from 10.4% on Thursday to 13.4% on Sunday, with the spike driven by the results of PPP and NBC News/Marist polls in which he got 15% and 16%, respectively. It could be a statistical blip, but I suspect it’s real; it’s not surprising that the Newt vs. Mitt slugfest would drive some voter away from both of them and thus toward Santorum.