Jennifer Rubin is wrong:
The silver lining for Romney is that Gingrich, though coming in second in both races, vowed to stay in the race. It is the competition between Gingrich and Santorum that will help keep Santorum’s delegate count low, allowing Romney to maintain or lengthen his lead.
See, basic problem with Republicans is that they are, basically, stupid. And part of that stupidity is their complete and utter inability to do simple math.
Romney doesn't need to "keep Santorum’s delegate count low". Romney needs to get enough delegates to avoid a brokered convention. Even if he does end up getting the nod at a brokered convention, the damage done by extending this all the way to the convention is immeasurable.
Gingrich in the race actually makes it HARDER for Romney to get to the magic number, because while he is stealing delegates from Santorum, he is also stealing delegates from Romney.
Case in point, MS and AL with all three in the race netted Romney somewhere around 30% of the delegates available. MS and AL without Newt in the race would have netted Romney closer to 45, maybe even 50% of the delegates.
This is a pattern which is likely to play out in every solid red state.
Run, Newt, Run!
Could we end up seeing a Gingrich/Santorum ticket pre-convention? Is that what Newtie is playing at by leaking hints of asking Perry to be his running mate?
I can definitely see Newt going to the frothy one and saying "I'd rather be Romney's VP than your VP, but if you let me be Pres I'll let you be my VP and we can put one over on that Massachusets Librul".