Indeed, but Gingrich has never led Santorum in states. The Gingrich folks believe that Santorum should have dropped out despite the fact that Santorum was a much better candidate and was much stronger vs Romney than Gingrich.
The opportunity where Gingrich could have made a constructive contribution to the race, by endorsing Santorum has passed. That time was back in February.
Now, the race has proceeded far enough that Romney isn’t going to be stopped.
Even if Gingrich were to win all of the remaining red states on the ballot, it still wouldn’t be enough. He’s just too far behind.
My understanding was that the polling was saying that if Gingrich had left the race his supporters would not necessarily have gone to Santorum, and vice versa. So Gingrich’s strategy was to stay in the race to keep Romney from getting enough delegates to win in the first round of voting and force a brokered convention.
And I think that’s still the only strategy we have left available to us - and that it could be effective in getting Romney out. Especially if the GOPe is forced to obey the law regarding proportionate delegates and is kept from pulling the kind of shenanigans they did in Iowa, Maine, and Missouri.
At this point we can’t afford to be sniping at our allies, because we are engaged in a life-and-death war. Friendly fire is not an option, and surrender is not an option.