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I don’t recall Newt Gingrich being in favor of candidates trailing in polls to drop out after Iowa. After all, in that scenario it would have been himself who needed to bail out of the race. But now that Gingrich is running second in Florida and neck and neck with Romney nationally, he wants that standard to be in place. At least, that’s the case when it comes to Rick Santorum.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says rival Rick Santorum should take a look at the poll numbers, which show Gingrich beating him, and drop out.  

“The longer conservatives stay split, the harder it’s going to be for us to [beat Romney],” Gingrich said on FOX and Friends on Tuesday. “And I think that we risk not being able to beat Obama unless we get a conservative. I have to win the nomination.”

Santorum is sapping conservative votes from Gingrich, the former House speaker said. Santorum, appearing just moments after Gingrich, countered.

“I don’t think either one of them are the right choice,” Santorum said, referring to Gingrich and front-runner Mitt Romney. “And if you want to look at the real conservative, we’re the real conservative that can win.”

First, Newt Gingrich does have a point here. There is somewhat of a split on the conservative side of the GOP vote. That said, Ron Paul contributes to this as well and if Newt Gingrich can’t convince those voters that he is the best of the three then he needs to make changes in his own message to accomplish it.

Second, Rick Santorum is picking up steam. In fact, Santorum has gained about the same 2% that Gingrich lost on the national average during the past two weeks. He’s now grabbing some big conservative endorsements and he may end up doing a lot better in Florida than we all originally expected.

It’s still early in this race. While a Florida win makes the trip to the convention much easier, it can be done without Florida and anything can happen. I agree it’s probably frustrating for Gingrich, Santorum and Paul to see the more conservative vote being spread around, but that’s the way this works and it’s their job to fix that through their message.

My two…

-Eric Odom

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3. Rick Santorum First to Exit Primary Race?
4. What about Rick Santorum?
5. Tea Party POTUS Race Landscape is a Discombobulated Mess