As I listen in disbelief to the ravings of Rick Santorum, I have to consider the possibility that a serious third-party presidenital challenge is possible this year.The former Pennsylvania senator sounds more and more like some kind of disturbed creep, the kind that overcompensates for a secret and troubling perversion perhaps.

This weirdo is actually doing well in the polls. Among Republicans, of course, but even so, who knew?

Who knew that a significant number of Americans in the year 2012 would contemplate banning birth control?

And Santorum is their guy.

If he gets the Republican nomination, I am betting the party will splinter. There’s no way Ron Paul’s libertarians can find common ground with Puritans intent on invading women’s bedrooms and dictating how, where and when they can have sex.

Paul would likely mount an independent challenge, taking his 12 to 15 percent of the party with him.

In that case, the Americans Elect crowd might come courting, bringing their $30 million in secret cash. They’ve been desperate to find a candidate, so desperate they’ve actually approached Joe Lieberman. Imagine that! Joe Lieberman for president! What is this world coming to?

Americans Elect is the best funded but not the only third-party movement in America. The undergrowth is crawling with presidential candidates. What if they – or some of them, anyway – decided to support a challenge by Ron Paul? Could they get him elected president?

There are a lot of crazies in America. More than I ever suspected, apparently. But I doubt they exist in enough numbers to elect either Paul or Santorum.

Increasingly, it seems as if there will be only one electible candidate for president in 2012.

His name is Barack Obama.