Unless he wins three more states, Gingrich cannot win at a divided convention either. At this point, only Romney and Santorum have won the five state minimum to be nominated. That is what the rule says.
Newt is trying to deny Romney delegates. Nobody is going to beat Romney outright. The only chance is to deny him delegates. Period.
Uh, after Louisiana, we will be at the halfway point.
Not quite.
It says that the candidate must have a plurality from 5 states before he can be placed in nomination. It does not say that such a plurality must come from the primary process.
To wit: if there is no winner on the first ballot (and for the sake of argument, let's assume that Newt isn't on that first ballot), and delegates are freed from previous commitments, it is possible for the math to change in such a way as to make Gingrich eligible before a subsequent round of balloting.