Wouldn't that happen at a brokered convention too? They can't win unless they can hold onto their delegates after they become free agents.
Rick Santorum has said it himself: the key is a brokered convention; neither he nor Newt can get to 1144.
The problem is Mitt's on his way to 1,144 without a game changer in this race. If we can mind control everyone to vote for Santorum instead of Newt, then we can win if he stays in, but that's the only way. 2/3rds of the upcoming delegates are subject to winner-take-all rules...about 800. If Ross Perot-style vote splitting causes us to lose any to Romney, then he's going to hit 1,144. We can just barely deny him the nomination if we win in every single moderate/swing state/district where vote-splitting is putting us at risk.
If what you say is true about 1,144 delegates for Romney..then what does it matter if a single candidate (Satorum according to your analysis/) or if Santorum and Gingrich double team Romney and deprive him of reaching 1,144 delegates?
I agree with your thoughts, and it bothers me that a candidate would play into this eventuality. I was prepared to call on Santorum to drop out after last Tuesday if he lost those primaries.
Romney MUST NOT get our nomination. I could vote for Newt if he prevailed, but it’s not going to happen. Be the bigger man. Save your efforts for 2016 if you don’t want to give your goal to be president.
—”Wouldn’t that happen at a brokered convention too?”—
No, because the spotlight would be on them, and everyone would be making a pitch and paying attention. The delegates could be “bought” now because of the endless time and secretive deals that would certainly be made.
Buying delegates one-by-one at a brokered convention will be impossibly harder, because we’ll know each delegate’s name by heart, and they will be asked where they stand by the press every five minutes of the day.