[JoSixChip]

Garbage! santorum will never be president. He is the least electable person in the race, obumber could beat him with half his funds in escrow.

[Melas]

Before anyone starts calling for newt to pull out, I suggest a careful examination of where his delegates would go. Newsflash, they don’t all go to Santeria.

[JohnBovenmyer]

The negative momentum from tonight will have major effects in LA and MO. Newt’s performance in the MO beauty pageant will be repeated in spite of being technically in the race this time. Newt’s vote in LA will also crater, expect Rick to cross 50% there. Rick’s positive momentum may inch him across the line in IL, where polls had him close behind Mitt. However long experience leads me to expect the Ill. GOP will find some way to blow it.

[montanajoe]

When even the NYT recognizes that unless Newt drops out Romney wont get the nomination conservatives should pay attention.

If Romney cant win a majority of the votes before the convention he is toast and a real conservative will be able to emerge from the convention.

Santorum has now shown he can win with Newt in the race so it makes no sense for Newt to get out

[Josh Painter]

Yes, the leftist NY Times is the font of wisdom for conservatives and Republicans. We should do whatever NYT columnists say without question. /sarc

[An American!]

Mitt came in 3rd...Newt barely trailed Rick...it is hardly a two man race

[Christie at the beach]

Santorum people seem to think that these wins were blow outs. These were close margins. Newt said last night, that it maybe close since he did not have the Christian right vote. Very true. Newt needs to stay in. I have problems with Santorum and his views of how government should be in our lives. The liberals have been voting for him/same old story as we go along and those voters will vote for Obama in the general. Newt is more qualified than any of the others. The sad part is that the voter turn out was low. It is a shame that not enough people got involved and made a statement they will just go along with whoever wins vs fighting for their country's future. The religious right came out tonight. that's all it was. The media Never talks about Newt. They want the man out of this race. If I were Newt, I would stay in because his supporters want him to make a difference at the convention. I want Newt there with his input. Newt knows his reputation is at stake but he also knows he must do whatever he can do to not allow the ruling class to give us a Obama lite. If Santos is the 2nd under delegates and Newt cannot win the debate, I want a new person. Santos cannot be the candidate to fight OBama. The libs have won this primary. Rush and Mark have won tonight. As a conservative, this is a nightmare that just becomes worse since Santorum is a Bush redo. We can do better...Stay in, Mr. Speaker. You are the reformer and we need you. I will be at Tampa for you.

[Gene Eric]

Go Newt!

[CharlesWayneCT]

THe problem is, with Newt and Rick splitting the conservative vote, neither is taking 50%. And so the media can spin the narrative that they can’t really win, even though they claim Romney is inevitable and Romney only rarely takes 50%.

Of course, if Romney would get 50% without both Santorum and Gingrich in a state, then it’s clearly better to have them both in.

Does anybody think that Romney would have taken over HALF of the Gingrich votes? If not, then Santorum would have taken 50% without Gingrich. If he had, Santorum would have 37 delegates, and Romney 0. Instead, it’s Santorum 13, Romney 12, Gingrich 12.

So in Mississippi, conservatives were hurt and Romney helped by Gingrich.

In Alabama, the same is true. Santorum would clearly have taken 50% in a two-man race, unless you believe over half the Gingrich votes would have gone to Romney. And at 50%, Santorum would have taken all of the statewide delegates.

But in Alabama, they had a lot of district delegates, and Santorum would have had to have taken 50% in each. So Romney probably would have taken some delegates.

With Gingrich in, if the two had been able to keep Romney below 20%, they could have shut Romney out. And if they had come in 1-2 in the districts, they would have shut out Romney there as well. So if GIngrich had done a bit better in Alabama, Romney could have been kept to zero, or if Gingrich was gone, Romney could have been kept to close to zero.

That is the problem. If there’s a true proportional delegate selection, it’s probably better having two people in the race; if it’s 50% winner-take-all, we might as well have one candidate, because nobody’s going to get 50% with two in the race.

And in the meantime, the relatively even split plays into the narrative that Santorum isn’t really getting a lot of support, the same with Gingrich.

[Wiz]

Fact

Romney is the least desired candidate by the conservatives.

Fact

Gingrich has the least chance to win the race for the Republican Party.

Fact

Santorum may have stronger conservative agendas hard to penetrate the Independents, but is the most favored candidate within the conservative, and has better chance to defeat Romney than Gingrich. Romney is not a choice, and Gingrich can’t survive, so even there is less chance to win over Obama, Santorum is the most realistic candidate for conservatives.

Fact

If Gingrich steps down now, and aligns with Santorum, there is better chance for Romney to be defeated.