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DELAVAN LAKE, Wisc. -- Despite news of a dramatic cutback in Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign staff, Rick Santorum is still refusing to call for the former House Speaker to leave the race.
"I think it is time for all the Republican candidates to coalesce behind me. You know, let's just have a conservative nominee to take on Barack Obama. Until that time happens, I'm not going to call on anyone to get out," Santorum said Tuesday night.
The former Pennsylvania senator spent the day campaigning through Wisconsin. As he greeted patrons at restaurant here during his last stop, reporters told him of the reports that Gingrich had cut a third of his paid staff, including his campaign manager. The news was met with a wince and head shake.
"One of the things I was told very early on in presidential politics is that you run for president as long as the money hangs on," said Santorum. "Obviously, financially, it's tough. I can certainly understand that. So, I don't know what his plans are. As I've said before, were going to run the race irrespective of who's in and who's out."
Santorum said his campaign has not reached out to Gingrich, but that they "exchanged pleasantries" when they both met with the same group of reporters in Washington, DC on Monday.
Though Santorum has continually refused to call on Gingrich to leave the race, both he and senior staffers have blamed the waning GOP candidate for cutting into his vote totals and preventing a serious challenge to frontrunner Mitt Romney. Senior strategist John Brabender has in the past openly welcomed Gingrich to be a top voice for Santorum's campaign and has also said they would like to hire his staffers.
But even as a contender fades away, the road continues to be a tough one for Santorum. Polls show him struggling in the Badger State, where he is being heavily outspent.
He'll spend the majority of the time between now and Tuesday's primary in Wisconsin.
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What happened to Newt's "Sugar Daddy's". I'm sure somebody close to Mitt has a mil or two to give him. I hope he stays in. To the the Democrats, he's the gift that keeps on giving.
Obama/Biden 2012
His billionaire buddy can only give to super pacs, not to Newt directly. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
I actually hope Newt Gingrich stays in the race. Rather then just Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney helping Obama win, why not have Newt helping too.
Obama/Biden 2012 !
"...you run for president as long as the money holds on." Or who gets the largest share of fossil fuel handouts--a sad commentary.
GT-2021701
He recognized Newt as a failed experiment, cut his losses, and moved on.
His billionaire buddy can only give to super pacs, not to Newt directly.
Roger:
You are correct, and the Super PACs can only pay for political ads. The actual campaigns need to be funded by limited individual donations and the candidates personal funds. Reports have it that Santorum is struggling with this problem as well, although he will likely be able to hold out for a while longer. Nevertheless, given the number of states that are coming up soon, it forces him to be very selective about where he spends his money. Because most of the upcoming states favor Romney, I expect he will be concentrating mainly on Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Obviously, this is not a strategy that will win him the nomination.
SI
Gas is going up and buses are gas-guzzlers making a broke Newt moot.
Why should he? Newt's already returned to Ron Paul levels of irrelevance.
No need to ask him to leave. Gingrich is coming in behind Ron Paul in most contests now. Gingrich is irrelevant.
Thought I caught a blurb on some news channel (CNN?) that Santorum thinks he'll be the VP nominee, assuming he doesn't get nominated for president (that's likely!). Numbnuts only needs to go back to 2008 and see that, with everyone screaming for Hilary to chosen as VP, Obama said no and went with Biden. The only way Romney would pick Santorum as VP is if he thinks he could become president by doing so. Even then, he may think it's not worth the aggravation. If you thought Dan Quayle was a ridiculous choice to be one heartbeat from the Oval Office, Santorum is beyond the pale.
Every time I hear the words coalesce and Santorum my stomach becomes queasy.
The simple answer to the rhetorical question as to why Santorum isn't asking Newt to get out of the race is simple; Santorum knows that nowhere near all of Newt's votes will end up going in his favor and thus having Newt gone will insure a Romney victory. If Santorum can't get to an "open convention" he has no chance at all. When Newt does drop out, which he will be forced to do when his Tiffany's bill exceeds his available campaign contributions, Romney will have it (the nomination) in the bag.
Santorum does not need all of Newt’s votes, most races are won by a few percent.
Not necessarily. At the end of the day, Newt hurt Santorum more than he hurt Romney. There were 32 races on super tuesday that Romney won that would have been won by Santorum. Santorum also would have had Michigan. Despite Romney by polls does not have the 45% of the remaining votes to win Nomination. Newt staying in as long as he did also insures that Santorum probably will not either.
Romney, by recent poll swings may get the vote, but only if they are real AND IMPROVE. Right now Romney is about 50 votes short - by polls and historic assumptions of regional states where there are no polls.
Gingrinch has this delusion that if he stays in the race until the convention, that Republicans will BEG him to be the nominee over Romney. Santorum believes that God will intervene and simply make him the candidate.
Scary thought, Presidential candidates that are that far removed from reality.
Romney is outspending Santorum 10:1 in Wisconsin. The only voters he bested Santorum on in Louisiana were the uppermost income group. While Santorum is attempting to win over Main Street, Romney is using Wall Street to buy Main Street. To the rich go the spoils of Republican politics.
1. Why bother?
2. He wants his delegates--and Sheldon.
Santorum is now just running for VP and is looking ahead to 2016. He knows if he is on the ticket as the second banana and Romney loses, that he can say it was because Romney was not a real conservative. This will position him well with Newts backers and donors in 2016.
He doesn't want to ask him to leave because it's to his benefit to keep him in the race. That way Mutt doesn't walk away with it. The longer he can keep Mutt from winning ,the better chance he has. I feel Gingrich, Paul and Sanitarium should all QUIT and let Mutt win the nomination to lose to President Obama....
2012 -----PRESIDENT OBAMA------2012
Just by reading the first quote in the article you can see that Sanitarium is really full of himself. I hope that he is neither one of the candidates running against O'Bummer/Biden in November. Hopefully Mr. Romney has more common sense than that to chose him. - Now watch the comments about what I just said. Just read "No Apology by Mr. Romney and the latest book "The Real Romney", before making any negative comments about Mitt.
Newt is being economically responsible which this BIGOTED president OBIGOT should learn to do.