Well, yeah. Like him or hate him, you have to admit that Newt is a strategic thinker. That's why he doesn't waste money trying to win meaningless, no-delegate primaries in Missouri, while Santorum pours money down the toilet to grab a headline. That's why he's still in this thing period, despite having only won two states so far.
And Santorum's supporters tend to be the same way. They pat themselves on the back for winning two primaries by less than 4% that Santorum should easily have had by double digits, and would have three weeks ago. In politics, there really is such a thing as momentum, and for the past three weeks, Newt's has been upward and Santorum's has been downward. They can chirrip about it all they like, but that fact remains true. Newt overperformed, and Santorum underperformed. That happened because of the longer-term trending going on - something that I'm sure Newt's staffers can recognise as easily as I can, and which is why he's still saying he's in it till Tampa, even when the short-term thinkers are flabbergasted and astounded that he hasn't conceded tonight.
Sigh... You’re whistling past the graveyard. Newt is going to go from hurting the Conservative movement to hurting his own reputation if he doesn’t get out soon. He is nothing more than a spoiler now...
“Newt is a strategic thinker” like proposing permanent moon-based colonies within eight years at a time of exploding trillion dollar budget deficits and $16T national debt, and $2.50 gas/gallon within two years regardless of world energy markets and geo-political conditions.