Read THIS! = Brices Crossroads - from another thread:
Romney WILL get the nomination unless this narrows to a two man race and fast.
Right now, Mittens has 364 delegates and Santorum, his nearest competitor has 164. the race could be evened in a week if Newt were to announce that he had released his 100 delegates to voter for Santorum and that he was endorsing and campaigning for Santorum. Santorum would win Majorities in Alabama and Mississippi on March 13, giving him all those delegates (90), which would even the race. Time is running short. To be consequential, Newt must strike hard and he must strike quickly.
The ball is in Newt’s court on this one. He knows Romney is a likely loser to Obama and that Mittens would be a very poor President in the unlikely event that he won.. He has a chance to do something for his country, not unlike what Edmund G. Ross did in saving the Presidency in 1868. It would be hard for him and for his supporters, but it is the right thing to do.
Gingrich and Santorum are killing each other. - by xzins (Since 1998)
Rick and Newt need to get together and cream Romney. - by Linda Frances
* Rick as temp Placekeeper Nominee *
The FR Golden Gate Plan! => Post 55 "GOP Brokered Primary Now!" thread
“The ball is in Newt’s court on this one. He knows Romney is a likely loser to Obama and that Mittens would be a very poor President”
Perhaps Newt thinks, as I and many of Newt’s supporters do, that Romney has a much better chance of beating Obama than Santorum does. You may not agree with us, but it’s not an unreasonable opinion.
Perhaps Newt also thinks, as I and many of Newt’s supporters do, that Mitt might be a poor president due to questionable credentials on social conservatism, but Rick might also be a poor president due to questionable credentials on fiscal conservatism.
All three would be a million times better than Obama as president. I would strongly prefer Santorum over Romney as president, but think he’d need divine intervention to beat Obama, so I’d prefer Romney as the nominee.
You’re dreaming if you think Newt will quit. He probably sees this like I do. (I think like him on everything I’ve heard him say in the debates... we seem to be like-minded.)
Here’s what I think he and Santorum should do... there are a few more proportional-allocation states that will hold primaries before winner-take-all states begin. They should announce an agreement that whichever one of them has the most PLEDGED (i.e. bound and required to vote for them on the first ballot) delegates at the end of the proportionals stays in the race, and the one with the lesser amount will drop out and become the V.P. nominee.
The problem with both your plan and mine, is that even though both would probably rather be VP than drop out completely, both also probably don’t want the other as VP, believing the other doesn’t help the ticket enough to beat Obama. (Even though I think Santorum probably believes Newt as VP would hurt his ticket, I disagree... that would possibly be almost as helpful as the divine intervention I think he would need.) Anyhow, they will probably work together only as a last resort if they both decide it’s the only possible way to the nomination. I don’t see that happening until the winner-take-all states begin voting.