Looks like Newt is hoping that Santorum’s exit will put wind in his sail:
THE HILL – Newt Gingrich on Tuesday sought to recast the GOP primary as a two-man race, saying that rival Rick Santorum’s exit “makes it clearer that there’s a conservative, named Newt Gingrich, and there’s Mitt Romney.”
The former House Speaker added on Mike Huckabee’s radio show that Santorum’s exit from the race provides the one-on-one matchup with Mitt Romney he “spent the whole year hoping to get.” In a subsequent statement, Gingrich made a pointed pitch for Santorum’s supporters and delegates.
“I am committed to staying in this race all the way to Tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice. I humbly ask Sen. Santorum’s supporters to visit Newt.org to review my conservative record and join us as we bring these values to Tampa. We know well that only a conservative can protect life, defend the Constitution, restore jobs and growth and return to a balanced budget,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich told Huckabee that his campaign team was already at work reaching out to former Santorum supporters to see if they would defect to his campaign. He has 136 delegates, trailing Romney at 661 and Santorum at 285, according to a count from The Associated Press.
He went on to compare his campaign to the effort of movie character Rocky Balboa — waging miraculous comeback after miraculous comeback — and joked he would get his picture taken with the iconic statue of the fictional boxer while campaigning in Philadelphia.
Gingrich also praised Santorum for the way he ran his campaign, saying candidates give the campaign “everything you can.”
“I have a great, great respect for how hard Rick worked, he was the personification of courage,” Gingrich said. “I wish him well as he goes on to the next great adventure.”
Asked to speculate on why Santorum may have decided to exit the race, Gingrich used the opportunity to make a pointed jab at Romney.
“I do know he had begun to realize what I learned in Iowa and Florida, which is if you’re up against all of Wall Street, it’s very, very difficult,” Gingrich said.
The former House Speaker also said that while Santorum did not provide him a heads up that he was exiting the race, he knew the former Pennsylvania senator had been weighing the idea.
“We’ve been talking for two weeks… I knew this was a very real possibility in his mind,” Gingrich said.