Rick Santorum said a few days ago an Illinois win could guarantee him a path to the nomination. Now a double-digit victory in President Barack Obama's home state may do the same for Mitt Romney.

First, the good news for Santorum: He held on to his edge with working-class and rural voters, winning both categories Tuesday in Illinois. He continued to claim Republicans looking for strong character and conservative bona fides in their presidential candidate. And he was the top pick among the most religious voters: regular churchgoers, evangelicals and those who think the religious beliefs of their party's nominee are important.

Now, the bad news: According to exit polls, Romney won virtually everyone else.

Romney's victory was fueled by massive majorities of voters with college degrees and six-figure incomes. But by narrower margins, he claimed nearly all other demographic blocs, too, including groups he's struggled to win throughout the primary season, such as the strongest tea party supporters.

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Rick Santorum is no stranger to unorthodox scheduling decisions: this is the campaign, after all, that scheduled a major economic speech for a Friday night, where news stories generally go to die. So there’s a certain sort of logic to the fact that their big home-stretch phone-banking event in Michigan - featuring some of their candidate’s highest-profile surrogates - happened to coincide with the top of the Academy Awards broadcast. (In some ways, it’s an understandable oversight: there are no visible TVs at the Troy rent-an-office currently serving as the campaign’s only official Michigan base.)

Still, there was a healthy showing yesterday. Reality show stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar spoke to an enthusiastic group drawn from all across the southeastern part of the state, pointing to the divine roots of Santorum’s rise as several in the family-heavy crowd nodded their agreement. “You can see the hand of God in what’s happened in this campaign,” said Jim Bob Duggar. “We have to pray that God move the hearts of the people to support Rick Santorum.” Some of the volunteers present looked eager enough to hit the streets that night.

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