Gingrich hints he may drop from race this week (No, he didn't)

Newt Gingrich hinted he may withdraw from the presidential race if he has a poor showing in the Delaware primary Tuesday –

"I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing...We will be in North Carolina tomorrow night and we will look and see what the results are."

"This has been a good opportunity for us, we have been here seeing a lot of people,” Gingrich said. “We have got really positive responses and I would hope we would do well here – either carry it or come very, very close."

..."Romney is clearly the frontrunner but that doesn't mean he is inevitable. It is very dangerous for frontrunners to start behaving like they are inevitable because the voters might decide that’s not so true. Frankly, I think it is a mistake for Romney to kick-off his general election campaign tomorrow in New Hampshire. He has about half the votes he needs to be nominated."

Speculation remains high that Gingrich will exit the GOP race this week, especially he rescheduled his trip to North Carolina several times.

The Speaker heads to North Carolina tomorrow for a tour of the Billy Graham Library. The campaign also added an "election night rally" in the Charlotte area, which Gingrich has not held since late February.

As Gingrich remains in the race, his Secret Service detail remains alongside him. As questions are raised about the cost to taxpayers while the Speaker continues campaigning with an entourage of agents, Gingrich says he sees no problem with it and finds it "goofy" that people question if he should get rid of the detail.

They’re the same folks who nominated Christine O’Donnell over Mike Castle.

What they should have learned after nominating Christine O'Donnell is that losing with someone who represents your passions is still losing. If the TEA Party people had pushed a candidate more qualified and less confrontational than Christine O'Donnell but less liberal than Mike Castle, they might have won a Senate seat in a state that had been steadily Democrat for a long time. We probably wouldn't have wound up with someone who was perfectly conservative on every issue, but we would have picked up an important vote in the Senate for six years.

The REAL lesson from the Delaware Senate race in 2010 is that when the GOP-E doesn’t get the candidate it wants, it will sabotage it’s own party’s chances. That’s what the GOP-E did. They refused to support her campaign to any degree. They ran her down in the media. they even implicitly supported her Marxist opponent.

Christine O’Donnell’s flaws as a candidate could have been dealt with. Every candidate who runs for their first major office needs to have coaching and counsel, but the politically experienced GOP-Ers refused to give her this.

Her conservatism isn’t what killed her run. The GOP-E sabotage did.

And now this same crowd wants conservatives to support the guy that they’ve finagled into the nomination, often by underhanded means? I don’t think so.

to be sure, it’s all about whatever advantages Rick, as he ingratiates himself with the cabal in DC as he has thru’ out his career, this time by pandering to the religious Right on behalf of the liberal.... He wants on that ticket at all costs.

Absolutely true. Tried so to warn people. They knew he would pull the religious right via social issues. Dang shame this guy would not be seen as he is.

He's just waiting for Newt to drop out before he brings his delegates to Romney. This way he can "safe face" and claim Newt's not running.

This makes it pretty final.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/25/gingrich-to-suspend-presidential-campaign-next-tuesday-sources-say/

Newt Gingrich plans to formally leave the Republican presidential race next Tuesday, senior campaign aides told Fox News, after struggling for months to turn around his sagging bid for the White House.

...

For several weeks, Gingrich staffers have been reviewing accounts and making preparations. Gingrich had been holding out hope for a strong performance at least in Delaware Tuesday night. Absent that, Gingrich decided to plan for his exit next week.

He will complete his North Carolina schedule this week, making it something of a goodbye tour while supporters, friends and family arrive from across the country for his departure from the race.

Earlier on the trail, Gingrich signaled Wednesday morning that he was preparing to drop out. Telling a breakfast gathering of county Republicans in North Carolina that it’s clear Romney will be the nominee, Gingrich said the campaign is “working out the details of our transition” and will have more information in the coming days.

“I think you have to be honest at some point about what’s happening in the real world as opposed to what you’d have like to have happened,” Gingrich said, praising the front-runner’s primary performances Tuesday night.

“This guy has worked for six years, put together a big machine, and has put together a serious campaign,” he said. “I think obviously that I would be a better candidate, but the objective fact is that the voters didn’t think that.”

Gingrich said he plans to complete his campaign schedule in North Carolina, which runs through Friday, but “I want you to know that I’ve been coming here a long time as a citizen, I’m going to keep coming as a citizen, I have a schedule through the rest of the week as a citizen.”

Gingrich said that he and Callista are still committed to going to Tampa, but made it clear that they would be attending as Romney supporters and not as spoilers for the nomination.

“I do think it’s pretty clear that Gov. Romney is ultimately going to be the nominee and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that he is, in fact, effective and that we as a team are effective both in winning this fall and then, frankly, in governing,” he said.

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