Newt Gingrich Says Perry and Santorum Should Drop Out, Join His Campaign

Newt Gingrich on Tuesday suggested that the two ricks; Rick Perry and Rick Santorum should drop out of the GOP race and consolidate their efforts into helping him topple GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney.

Speaking about the possibility of consolidation he noted:

“From the standpoint of the conservative movement, consolidating into a Gingrich candidacy would in fact virtually guarantee a victory on Saturday.”

Gingrich then went on to say:

“And I’d be delighted if either Perry or Santorum wanted to do that.”

Supporting his move for consolidation Gingrich claims to be the only “conservative” with a chance of winning against Mitt Romney.

In a response to Newt Gingrich is good friend Rick Santorum released the following statement:

I’m a friend of Newt’s, he’s a good man, but the idea that someone who is 0 and 2 in races is that I am hurting him. Yeah I’m hurting him. I’m beating him. That’s the difference.”

In many ways Newt Gingrich has a valid point, as the Burns & Haberman blog at Politico points out there has been a growing sense that ultra conservatives must ban together in order to stop Romney from winning the primary. However analysts have oft-pointed to Rick Santorum to be that man.

If any candidate was to drop out at this point and support Newt or another Republican candidate they would need to make the decision quickly in order to utilize their own resources while campaigning for their supported choice.

Do you think Gingrich, Perry and Santorum need to combine their campaigns in order to defeat Mitt Romney?