Elections

Looking past Super Tuesday, Santorum needs Newt to drop out

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Despite Mitt Romney racking up more wins on Super Tuesday, the fight is not over yet. And his rivals are screaming that he can still be taken down.

But Rick Santorum needs Newt Gingrich to drop out.

A scenario involving a Gingrich departure from the race, helping Santorum consolidate the anti-Romney vote, still threatens the former Massachusetts governor. Santorum supporters point to Gingrich’s failure to win a single state outside of the South.

“Right now, if you’re either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, you’re thinking, ‘oh my gosh, if I could just get Mitt Romney one-on-one,’” said political commentator Juan Williams on Fox News. “It’s still the case that they would think, ‘I can beat him.’”

But on Tuesday, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond dismissed the chatter and called on Santorum’s campaign to “stop selling a pipe dream.”

And in an election night speech Tuesday, Gingrich, who easily won the Georgia primary, made clear he has no intention of dropping out anytime soon.

“There lots of bunny rabbits that run through,” he said of media prognosticators anointing a string of hopefuls as the anti-Romney candidate. “I’m the tortoise.” (RELATED: Interactive Super Tuesday results map)

Speculation abounds that Gingrich, eventually realizing he doesn’t have a viable path forward, could forge an alliance with Santorum to stop Romney. It’s no secret Gingrich does not want to see Romney, whose campaign and supporting super PAC has relentlessly attacked him throughout the campaign, to win the GOP nomination.

Romney’s campaign has hit Gingrich especially hard whenever he has risen in the polls — especially during the Iowa, South Carolina and Florida primaries this year.

But Gingrich made it clear he’s soldiering on, with a southern strategy that hinges on Alabama and Mississippi, two states holding primaries next week. And his campaign sent out a fundraising appeal Tuesday after the race in Georgia was called, titled “Newt is Back!”

“This campaign is far from over,” said Gingrich’s wife, Callista, during a rally Tuesday night in Atlanta, “and tomorrow will bring another chapter in the race for the nomination.”

During his speech in Steubenville, Ohio before the state’s results were announced, Santorum vowed to continue. “We keep coming back,” he said. “We are in this thing.”

In recent interviews, Santorum has been arguing that Gingrich should consider bowing out of the race so the former Pennsylvania senator can face Romney on his own.

But whatever momentum Santorum may earn from his Super Tuesday wins, Romney suggested in Boston that he has the delegate math on his side.

“We’re counting up the delegates for the convention,” he said. “It looks good.”

“We’re counting down the days until November and it looks even better,” Romney added.

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