Is it Rick Santorum day?

If Rick Santorum is ever going to take flight nationally, Tuesday's elections in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado may be his best opportunity, PPP finds:

Rick Santorum could be headed for a big day in today's contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. Missouri looks like a probable win for Santorum. He's at 45% there to 32% for Mitt Romney and 19% for Paul. Minnesota provides an opportunity for a win as well. Currently he has a small advantage with 33% to 24% for Romney, 22% for Newt Gingrich, and 20% for Ron Paul. And Santorum should get a second place finish in Colorado, where Romney appears to be the likely winner. The standings there are Romney at 37%, Santorum at 27%, Gingrich at 21%, and Paul at 13%. ... There are three groups Santorum's winning in all three of these states: Tea Partiers, Evangelicals, and those describing themselves as 'very conservative.' Those were groups that had previously been in Gingrich's column, but it appears right leaning Republican voters are shifting toward Santorum as their primary alternative to Romney. If Santorum does pick up 2 wins and a 2nd place finish tomorrow that trend is likely to be accelerated.

The contests are non-binding, with no delegates but perhaps a good bit of momentum up for grabs. The view in Santorum-world has been for some time that February is an opportunity for him to overtake Gingrich as the conservative alternative to Romney. Beating Gingrich in all three of today's states and besting Romney in two of them might do the trick.