If you had "Rick Santorum winning more than 10 states" in your office pool on the 2012 GOP race, you were one of the few.
Let's face it - the political and media know-it-alls gave Santorum little chance to do well in this race, and had written him off long before the Iowa Caucuses.
And really, that's reflective of how Santorum left the Congress.
When the Pennsylvania Republican lost his seat in the U.S. Senate in 2006, there were few tears shed for him on Capitol Hill. Santorum did not leave the Capitol with many friends, as one joke made the rounds from Senators of both parties about him.
"What does Santorum mean in Latin?" some Senators would ask with a big smile.
Sometimes the joke was asked by using Italian as the language, instead of Latin.
The answer was always the same.
"Asshole," was the punch line that Senators of both parties delivered about their colleague.
When Santorum returned late last year to speak to his GOP colleagues at a lunch in the Senate, hardly anyone paid attention in terms of news. Many reporters just ignored him as he walked through the halls.
Santorum at that point had barely made a dent on the national stage. His poll numbers were low, he was on the margins in the GOP debates and no one was giving him any chance of playing a major role in the Republican race.
Even in late December at the GOP debate in Sioux City, Iowa that I covered, Santorum seemed like an afterthought. He was trying hard, many observed, but he wasn't going anywhere.
But in the next few weeks, Santorum suddenly gained traction in the Hawkeye State and finished a close second to Mitt Romney by just eight votes - a result that was changed a few weeks later to give Santorum the victory.
But even on the day that news broke on the campaign trail in South Carolina, there was no reason to think that Santorum could take advantage of his Iowa victory.
He never caught on in South Carolina, he left Florida early and finished far back, and never threatened in Nevada.
But Santorum soldiered on, and to the surprise of many Republicans - especially Mitt Romney - Santorum shocked everyone by winning three states in early February, triumphing in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado.
Unlike Newt Gingrich, Santorum caught on in other states, winning three on Super Tuesday and then grabbing more wins in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - all of that done with very little campaign organization.
In every state that I saw Santorum, his events were marked by one thing - little kids.
Often young couples would show up with babies and tots, and they would chirp and cry their way through Santorum's speeches - I can close my eyes and hear that from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio.
Average people who weren't really involved in the political process came out for Rick Santorum in a way that surprised many, and they helped spur his late challenge to Romney.
Instead of being the political boob who was laughed at by his colleagues in the Congress, Santorum pushed Mitt Romney to the edge in Ohio and Michigan, very nearly derailing the GOP frontrunner.
So Rick Santorum exits this race in a much better spot than he was a year ago. Does it mean that he will be a future force within GOP circles? No one knows that answer.
But he certainly changed his image from one of a guy who didn't get much respect to one who almost made the 2012 race a much different animal, by lasting much longer than anyone ever expected.
And if you do an internet search for "Santorum" now, the results are much more family oriented than they were about six months ago.
