One of Rick Santorum's precinct captains was found not to have voted for Rick Santorum, but he blamed his lack of support on a pen run dry.

The night was so bad for the previous Iowa winner that even one of his precinct captains didn't cast a ballot for him. MSNBC host Chris Haynes [sic] caught the admission on live television.

The Iowan, who was adorned in the classic Santorum sweater-vest, pulled out his cellphone to show Hayes the official precinct tally sheet. Hayes was quick to spot the "x" for Santorum, meaning no one caucused for him.

"Uh, Santorum, there's an 'X' next to him," Hayes pointed out to the precinct captain. "What? You didn't vote for him?"

"As I was writing down, my pen ran out of ink, and I was like 'I can't just ask somebody for a new pen while I'm doing this,'" the man said.

This is both sad and funny...but mostly funny.  Rick Santorum won Iowa by a whisker four years ago, but the signs were very, very clear that he was not going to do so again, given that he was having trouble getting to 2% in the polls.  Santorum was always confident that polls didn't register his true level of support, but when you are at 1% as long as Santorum was, at some point you have to accept reality.  Even Santorum's senior supporters didn't want to waste a vote on him.

Mike Huckabee, after spending a week holding Donald Trump's coat for him, did the sensible thing and suspended his campaign, but Santorum is still going at it.  Even Ben Carson, who did poorly but not nearly as poorly as Rick Santorum, decided to go home to spend more time with his clothes.

Santorum is not a bad man, but he is out of touch with reality, and one wonders, even as he still runs for president, what he does and doesn't understand.

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.