[samtheman]

As much as I hate to say it — because to me he’s the best of the bunch — I think Newt should drop out. He had his chance, he blew it in Florida with 2 poor debates in a row, and now he should get out of the way. RS is not my first choice, but I’ll take him. He’s the last Nott Romney we’ve got.

[NELSON111]

Agree with EVERYTHING you said. When I get a chance to vote...I will vote for whoever has a better chance of beating Romney. Newt had his chance and blew it.

[throwback]

I think Newt should stay in. If the debates are only between Romney and Santorum, I fear they will devolve into out nice’ing each other and everyone will go to sleep. Since Santorum is coming into his own, maybe the competition will turn more into seeing who is the best at beating the ___ out of Obama instead of each other now.

[Strategerist]

Pew is out with comprehensive national polling:

Rep Nomination:

Santorum: 30
Romney: 28
Gingrich: 17
Paul: 12

Obama vs. Santorum: Obama +10
Obama vs. Romney: Obama +8
Obama vs. Gingrich: Obama +18 (Ouch!)

[OrangeHoof]

My candidate was Rick Perry but he bowed out when he realized he wasn’t getting a do-over for some poor debate performances. I sometimes wonder if he had stayed around to survive Newtmania, he might be in Santorum’s place now.

Santorum is simply the not-Romney, not-Newt, not-Paul, anti-Obama candidate in the field. That’s what he is to me. Are there flaws in his conservatism? Yes. But there were flaws with all the others too and Santorum has probably done less to offend than any of the others.

I still believe 2012 will be a referendum on Obama and the only thing the GOP nominee needs to do to win is be the only credible candidate in November who can tell America “I can fix the economy and Obama won’t”. I thought Perry could better make that case than the others but he blew his chance just like Newt has blown his chance. Hopefully, Santorum doesn’t blow it or we are stuck with Romney.