As a triumph of male over female or black over white.
With Romney, he kinda sucks, but he has a huge war chest and actual professionals working for him. Gingrich and Santorum's organizations have been and still are almost strictly amateur hour, so much so that Santorum's people flat out failed to get him on the ballot in several states or failed to understand the rules about district balloting (Ohio). Plus they're bat shit insane.
If it wasn't for a few, nearly senile, bored rich guys floating them, Gingrich and Santorum would have disappeared long ago.
It's not so much ideology or identity at work here as it is competence.
"You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled."