Tampa: Rick Santorum

Santorum se pone detrás del logotipo de Romney

Aunque en mayo ya apoyó oficialmente su candidatura, el Senador Rick Santorum se ha dejado ver esta mañana en un acto de Team Romney por primera vez desde la encarnizada lucha que mantuvieron en las primarias republicanas. Santorum ha sido el encargado de inaugurar una oficina de campaña de Romney en las afueras de Pittsburgh, en Pennsylvania.

Balance de las Primarias Republicanas de 2012

Ayer concluyeron oficialmente las primarias presidenciales republicanas de 2012 con la esperada victoria de Mitt Romney en Utah con el 93% de los votos. El ex Gobernador de Massachusetts se llevó los 40 delegados en juego, sumando un total de 1,512 delegados, según Associated Press. Supera en 368 delegados los 1,144 necesarios para salir nominado en la primera votación de la convención, y es probable que se haga también con una mayoría de los delegados de los candidatos que ya han renunciado a competir en la convención (Santorum, Gingrich y Huntsman). El único competidor que sigue en activo, Ron Paul, suma 158 delegados.

Por delegados,



Por estados ganados,



Romney (37 estados): Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nueva York, Carolina del Norte, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Dakota del Sur, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Virginia Occidental, Wisconsin y Wyoming.

Santorum (11 estados): Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Dakota del Norte, Oklahoma y Tennessee.

Gingrich (2 estados): Georgia y Carolina del Sur.

Por voto popular,

Gobernador Mitt Romney - 9,620,460 votos
Senador Rick Santorum - 3,898,874 votos
Speaker Newt Gingrich - 2,713,417 votos
Congresista Ron Paul - 2,039,214 votos
Gobernador Jon Huntsman - 84,693 votos
Gobernador Rick Perry - 54,769 votos
Congresista Michele Bachmann - 41,333 votos
Gobernador Buddy Roemer - 28,008 votos
Herman Cain - 13,629 votos
Gobernador Gary Johnson - 4,364 votos

Santorum no está preparado para apoyar a Romney todavía

CBS News:

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday sounded no closer to endorsing Mitt Romney than when he dropped out of the presidential race last week, telling supporters on a conference call that he hasn't even had a chance to speak to his onetime rival.

Santorum said he has talked with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "I haven't had a chance yet to talk to Governor Romney, but we'll be talking to both of them and we're going to go out and do what we believe is in the best interest of our country," Santorum said in the call, which had at least 4,000 participants at its peak, according to host and Santorum aide Mark Rodgers.

To crystallize the point that he isn't going to make an endorsement in the immediate future, Santorum told his supporters that it was entirely up to them who to vote for in next week's Pennsylvania primary. "I haven't supported any candidate at this point," he said.

When Rodgers, acting as the call's host, asked him in jest whether he would un-suspend his campaign if enough people voted for him in Pennsylvania, Santorum offered little in the way of advice. "I would just say this: the best thing that they can do is stay tuned, and we really are serious about making sure that the issues that we brought up during this campaign are continued going forward," he said.

Throughout the call, the former Pennsylvania senator alluded to having plans to build a conservative movement outside of the framework of the presidential election in order to make sure his message is still heard.

Paul y Santo se hacen con parte de la delegación de CO; Romney controla WY

The Denver Post:

Colorado Republicans are heading to their national convention with their most conservative delegation in years, as supporters for Ron Paul and Rick Santorum masterminded a stunning upset in electing delegates.

At the state convention in Denver today, Paul forces easily were the most vocal, adding their candidate's name at almost every opportunity. When Republicans sang "Hey, hey, hey, good-bye" to President Barack Obama, Paul backers changed the words to "Hey, hey, hey, Ron Paul."

The momentum was painful for Mitt Romney supporters, who had assumed when Santorum dropped out of the presidential race this week they'd have a much easier time in winning Colorado's delegate and alternate seats to the Republican National Convention.

Instead, some of the Santorum's supporters united with Paul's backers to form the "Conservative Unity Slate" to win a slew of delegate slots. Four years ago, only one Paul supporter was elected to attend the national convention.

"This is a revolution," said Florence Sebern of Denver, an "unpledged" delegate who was wearing a Paul pin. She was part of the slate.

Slate supporters said they wanted to send a message to Romney about the importance of sticking to conservative values.

More than 800 Republicans — easily double the number who sought to attend the RNC in 2008 — ran for the 33 elected delegate and 33 elected alternate slots.

At congressional assemblies Thursday and Friday, Republicans elected 21 delegates and 21 alternates. Thirteen of the 18 winning delegates elected Friday were on the Paul/Santorum unity slate.

Today, to the relief of Romey backers, eight of the 12 at-large delegate slots, and six of the 12 at-large alternate slots went to Romney supporters. Former Congressman Bob Beauprez and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, both Romney supporters, were the top two vote getters.

What happened overnight?

Romney supporters realized they couldn't dilute their vote and had to stick with their slate, although plenty of other Romney backers were running as delegates, said Attorney General John Suthers.

"The wake-up call was how much discipline you have to have when you have a slate," said Suthers, a Romney delegate.

The Republic:

The Wyoming Republican Party has chosen 14 delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention and all of them are committed to support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The voting happened Saturday at the Wyoming Republican Party convention in Cheyenne.

Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee after former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suspended his campaign this week. The Wyoming delegates put Romney a small step closer to formally clinching the nomination.

Wyoming will send a total of 29 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Of those, 23 are committed to Romney, two to Santorum and one to Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Three other delegates are uncommitted or have not yet decided.

Santorum se retiró por falta de fondos

USA Today:

Rick Santorum said today the main reason why he dropped out of the presidential race was he didn't have the money to continue.

"We were just burning through cash at a rate we couldn't maintain," Santorum said in a radio interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

The former Pennsylvania senator suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, and cited family concerns and the health of his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, as factors for his decision.

Almost immediately after Santorum announced his departure from the race, he sent out a fundraising pitch to help alleviate his debt.

Santorum said his fundraising had slowed to "a very, very small trickle" after he lost the Wisconsin primary on April 3, adding that his campaign was in debt for the first time since he joined the race.

"The debt was from my perspective a little bit more substantial than I was comfortable with," he said.

El primer reto de Romney: cómo integrar a los rivales

POLITICO.com:

Rick Santorum

(...) So the question for Romney becomes this: How does he bring Santorum and his supporters inside the tent at a moment when he also wants to appeal to a broader, general election audience? It could prove a tricky task.

Some high-profile conservatives are warning Romney not to marginalize Santorum.

“If they want to be successful, they have to figure out a way to incorporate him into the campaign,” said Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, noting that Santorum “could’ve held this thing out even longer.”

That may mean prime time at the GOP convention this summer.

“I think he should have a very prominent role there,” Perkins said.

But even before Santorum left Gettysburg on Tuesday, some senior Republicans were fretting about the specter of Tampa being hijacked by one of the losing candidates and their supporters.

“We can’t let somebody who’s a better performer upstage Romney,” said one influential party leader, recalling GOP conventions in 1976 (Ronald Reagan) and 1992 (Pat Buchanan) when the nominee’s message was stepped on by his chief primary opponent. “We can’t have another shrill speech like what Pat did in 1992 with our gender gap.”

Newt Gingrich

(...) Gingrich has made clear, in both his public comments and in a private meeting with Romney, that he’s realistic about his chances and is remaining in the race to have his voice heard.

That means Boston must make him feel loved — or at least respected.

“I think Newt wants to be part of the campaign,” Bell said. “He clearly wants to make his peace and help lead the crusade against Obama. Romney can accommodate that, and tell him they’ll listen to anything he has to say about the platform.”

(...) Still, some in the party fret about giving the often-undisciplined Gingrich too much of a high profile in Tampa, worrying he’ll veer off message from the podium.

“Can you imagine Gingrich being told to vet his speech through Romney’s campaign staff?” asked one senior Republican.

Ron Paul

(...) Paul has at least two other interests: the ambitions of his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and the fate of his agenda. The first can be taken care of with a convention role. The latter is more delicate.

“It’s not a quid pro quo thing, but [Paul] should know that the issues he raised in the primary, especially on monetary reform, will get attention,” said Bell. “Romney should make clear he’s open to looking at different options at the Fed.”

The other issue with Paul: how to tame his youthful supporters, few of which have any allegiance to the GOP.

Romney officials will have to spend some time and money in the next months minding state Republican conventions to ensure that the actual delegates elected to be on the floor in Tampa are truly loyal to him.

“You don’t want to have closet Ron Paul delegates there,” Donatelli said. “We had to spend at least a half-million dollars after John McCain was the presumptive candidate on state convention stuff just to make sure real McCain people were elected as delegates.”

El Rey del Porno celebra la retirada de Santorum

POLITICO.com buscó la reacción de Steven Hirsch, fundador de una de las productoras de cine porno más importantes del mundo, a la retirada de Santorum, quien durante la campaña acusó a la industria pornográfica de contribuir a la violencia contra la mujer y al tráfico sexual.

Santorum se retira (video)

El Senador Rick Santorum, rodeado por su familia, ha confirmado que retira su candidatura presidencial. Su campaña había suspendido dos eventos esta mañana, haciendo disparar los rumores, y había anunciado un evento para esta tarde en Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, que ha terminado convirtiéndose en el anuncio de retirada.

Ha empezado su declaración agradeciendo a los que han rezado por la recuperación de su hija Bella. Ha dicho que la condición de la niña le ha hecho reflexionar durante el fin de semana sobre su papel de padre y sobre el futuro de su campaña.

Ha recordado anécdotas y personas que ha conocido durante su "improbable" campaña, y ha asegurado que la lucha continúa (¿otra candidatura dentro de cuatro u ocho años?).

No ha habido endorsement a Romney, aunque fuentes de su campaña han confirmado que los dos han hablado por teléfono antes del anuncio.

Ahora nos esperan unos tres o cuatro meses intensamente aburridos hasta que la campaña por la elección general entre Obama y Romney alcance mayor velocidad.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Santorum se retira

NBC News:

NBC News has confirmed that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will suspend his campaign for the nomination. The announcement, expected shortly at an event in Gettysburg, Pa., follows a recent hospitalization for his 3-year-old daughter who suffers from the chromosomal defect Trisomy 18.

A senior source in the Mitt Romney camp confirms to NBC News that the front-runner received a call from Santorum today.

Santorum’s decision to suspend his campaign will effectively stifle the opposition to Romney from within the GOP; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul remain active candidates, though neither of them have a plausible path to winning the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

El miedo al "efecto Bella" altera los planes de Romney en PA

The New York Times:

Mitt Romney’s attempt to pull off a victory in Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania was all set to go into overdrive Monday with attack ads highlighting how voters there soundly rejected him in his 2006 Senate race.

But the aggressive tactics that have served Mr. Romney so well in other states faced an unexpected complication: the emergency hospitalization of Mr. Santorum’s disabled daughter Bella, which prompted an outpouring of public sympathy.

The Romney camp abruptly pulled the ads on Monday morning. Bella, 3, who was born with a rare chromosomal disorder, was expected to return home soon to Virginia from the hospital, the Santorum campaign said. Her medical struggles, which in some ways have become the emotional centerpiece of Mr. Santorum’s race, have the potential to complicate Mr. Romney’s effort to quickly end the Republican nominating fight.

(...) The ad the Romney campaign pulled, after it ran at least 11 times in the Philadelphia media market, according to Kantar Media’s campaign media analysis group, bluntly addressed Pennsylvania voters: “We fired him as senator. Why promote him to president?”

The Romney campaign substituted a positive ad “out of deference” to Mr. Santorum, a spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said.

Once Bella is released from the hospital, the Romney campaign is expected to put the anti-Santorum ad back into its rotation, although that could take a day or two. The Romney campaign has planned a $2.9 million barrage of advertising over the next two weeks in Pennsylvania, which Mr. Santorum has called a must-win contest, although polls show him losing ground.

Jim Roddey, chairman of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, who has endorsed Mr. Romney, said the campaign probably would conduct polling to see whether Bella’s hospitalization remained a sensitive issue. But, he said, sympathy for Bella would probably not bring Mr. Santorum any new votes, nor would it deter the Romney camp from full-throated attacks on Mr. Santorum.

“He’s still not talking about the kinds of things most people are most concerned about, jobs and the economy.”

"¿Por qué promoverlo para Presidente?"

El primer anuncio anti-Santorum de Romney en Pennsylvania hace referencia a la derrota del ex Senador en 2006. El anuncio debía empezar a emitirse hoy pero Team Romney ha tenido la deferencia de retirarlo mientras la hija de Santorum siga ingresada en el hospital.

CBS: "En Pennsylvania, CBS News calcula que el republicano titular del cargo Rick Santorum ha sido derrotado por el demócrata Bob Casey."

NARRADOR: "La derrota por 17 puntos de Rick Santorum. Vergüenza histórica. Rick Santorum perdió su condado de origen por 30 puntos."

CBS: "Ha perdido a todos los niveles, entre demócratas e independientes, mujeres y hombres, negros y blancos, jóvenes y viejos, ricos y pobres."

NARRADOR: "Lo despedimos como Senador. ¿Por qué promoverlo para Presidente?"

Romney busca el knockout en Pennsylvania con 2 millones en anuncios

ABC News:

In an attempt to eject Rick Santorum from the presidential race by force, Mitt Romney’s campaign will unveil a nearly $2 million television ad buy on the Pennsylvania airwaves beginning on Monday.

According to sources tracking TV ad spending the buy, totaling $1.9 million, is widespread, hitting media markets from Philadelphia to Erie between April 9 and April 22 — two days before the state’s April 24 primary.

(The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Salena Zito reported that the buy could grow even larger — eventually ballooning to nearly $3 million.)

Rick Santorum has already made clear that “we have to win” Pennsylvania and Romney predicted this week that Santorum, who served the state in the House and Senate, is “obviously going to do well in Pennsylvania.” A loss in the Keystone State would be exactly the knock-out blow the Romney campaign is seeking to finally shut the door on the GOP primary.

But officials with the Santorum campaign say they do not plan to let the Romney ad buy go unanswered.

“We’ll make an ad buy, no question about that,” Santorum’s national communications director Hogan Gidley told ABC News on Saturday, noting that although the campaign has yet to purchase any airtime, he fully expects they will do so “soon.”

Team Santorum presenta itinerario muy ligero para esta semana

POLITICO.com:

Rick Santorum's campaign released his schedule for the coming week — a relatively light one, with a single event each day, but still a schedule.

He starts campaigning again on Tuesday, and at the end of the week heads to Missouri. Mitt Romney's campaign is moving in for the kill with an aggressive ad buy in Pennsylvania, as Alex first reported yesterday, but Santorum's campaign insists he's staying in.

Santorum's daughter Bella was admitted to the hospital within the past two days, and his aides haven't given an update on her status.

Los movimientos de Santorum alimentan los rumores de retirada

The Boston Globe:

Rick Santorum’s campaign insisted Friday the former Pennsylvania senator is still in the race despite mounting pressure even from voters in his home state that he pull out before the Keystone State’s primary April 24.

But Santorum has scheduled no public events over the holiday weekend and has made no major media buys, fueling speculation that he might quit. Polling in Pennsylvania that shows him slipping against front-runner Mitt Romney raises the prospect of an embarrassing home-state loss that could hurt his chances if he were to make a run for the nomination in 2016.

A Santorum campaign spokesman said the candidate had a busy slate of events scheduled for next week and promised that a list would be released soon.

(...) Santorum has given no clear indications that he is about to quit, although he is taking a respite this weekend from the nearly nonstop grind of campaigning, and some, including friends, have urged him to reconsider his candidacy. On Thursday, he huddled with key conservatives to plan a possible path to Tampa, where Republicans will gather in August for their convention.

On Friday, Santorum’s youngest daughter, Bella, born with a potentially fatal disease, was rushed to the hospital, according to the campaign. “The family requests prayers and privacy as Bella works her way to recovery,’’ said Hogan Gidley, Santorum’s director of communications.

Gidley insisted in an interview earlier this week that Santorum will take his campaign all the way to the convention.

Still, the campaign trail is rife with rumors that Santorum, famously stubborn, will soon relent to growing pressure for him to leave the race. A GOP political consultant in Pennsylvania found it noteworthy that the Santorum campaign had yet to make a major ad buy.

¿Cuándo cerrará Romney la nominación? ¿Puede Santorum pararlo?

CBS News echa un vistazo al calendario y la matemática:

The case for Romney: With 645 delegates, according to CBS News estimates, Romney is now past the halfway mark to the magic number of 1144 to clinch the nomination. That still leaves a ways to go, but there are a lot of delegates still available - about 600 in April and May, either through direct primaries or in state conventions in states that have already held caucuses.

Romney has won 60 percent of the delegates to date, as estimated by CBS News, so if he keeps up this pace, it's possible for him to reach 1144 on June 5 when delegate-rich states of California (169 delegates at stake) and winner-take-all New Jersey (50 delegates) hold their contests. Romney would have to pick up the pace for him to clinch the nomination at the end of May, needing to win just over 80 percent of the delegates available between now and then. However, there are fewer competitive candidates now than in the early contests and with some more moderate electorates holding contests on April 24 it's not totally unreasonable to think Romney could meet that.

The case for Santorum: Santorum has claimed that he can stop Romney from reaching that magic number of 1144. For this to happen, Santorum would have to win about 60 percent of the outstanding delegates, though importantly, doing so would not give Santorum enough delegates to clinch the nomination himself. It would just stop Romney from doing so. By CBS News estimates, Santorum has won 24 percent of the delegates allocated so far; He would have to more than double his delegate-winning pace.

When we look at both the calendar and the allocation methods in the states, it seems to point to late May or early June as the earliest that Romney could clinch, if he does. Most of the remaining contests allocate their delegates using more proportional methods, making it more difficult for Romney (or any candidate) to deliver a knockout blow soon. But there are some states where Romney is likely to win significantly more delegates than his opponents. New York on April 24, where Romney leads big in recent polls, allocates its 58 district-level delegates winner-take-all. If a candidate wins a Congressional district (no matter the margin) then that candidate wins the district's two available delegates while the rest of the candidates would get zero in that district. Romney is likely to rack up a lot of delegates then. Connecticut, also on April 24, allocates its Congressional district delegates in a similar way.

In Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania, votes are cast directly on the ballot for congressional district delegates. These delegates are not officially tied to a presidential candidate and go to the national convention technically unbound, but a more organized campaign is likely to have an advantage in getting its supporters on the ballot as delegates. So a win in the statewide vote for Santorum in Pennsylvania doesn't necessarily mean a huge delegate lead for him in the state.

The month of May includes some Southern states that have been friendly territory for Santorum. He's likely to gain some delegates then but many states voting in May use proportional allocation, meaning even a second or third place finisher can win some delegates. The biggest delegate prize in May is Texas with 152 delegates at stake, but the state allocates all its delegates proportionally based on the statewide vote. Even a big win for Santorum here wouldn't give him all of the state's delegates. Under current rules, a candidate does not need to win a certain percentage of the vote to be awarded delegates.

Efforts are being made by some Santorum supporters in Texas to change its primary to a winner-take-all contest but such an outcome would require a waiver is unlikely.

Santorum backers see another possibility in the delegate allocation. Many of the states that held caucuses earlier in the primary season will be holding conventions in the coming months, which is often where the delegates are actually chosen. These delegates sometime reflect the results of the caucus results but sometimes they don't. This is where campaigns can work to make sure their delegates are chosen to go to the convention.

Many unpledged delegates (these are the Republican National Committee members who are free to support whomever they choose) have yet to commit their support for a candidate. There are 120 or so of these delegates and according to CBS News estimates, 34 are backing Romney, 5 are for Santorum, while 2 are for Gingrich. The rest are uncommitted at this point so their support is up for grabs.

Pensando en Texas, Santorum persigue el apoyo de Perry

CNN:

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum met with former opponent Rick Perry earlier this week, CNN confirmed Friday.

"We viewed it was a courtesy visit," Perry's spokesman Ray Sullivan said, without discussing specifics of the conversation.

The meeting, held in Austin, came Tuesday just hours before Santorum faced disappointing losses in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

(...) While it's not known what Perry and Santorum discussed when they met Tuesday, the Texas governor's spokesman said, "Perry remains a Newt backer."

In recent days, Santorum has publicly set his eye on Texas, saying a win in the Lone Star State, with its 152 delegates at stake–next month would be a game changer for his campaign.

This wasn't the first time the two Rick's had talked since the Texas governor ended his campaign. During a visit to San Antonio last month, Santorum said he had spoken with Perry several times prior in the weeks following Perry's departure from the race.

Santorum y Gingrich, en conversaciones

Mark Halperin:

Pennsylvanian confabs in North Virginia with conservative leaders.

Talks about the path forward, with Gingrich's future on the agenda, including a possible unity effort to stop Romney.

Santo source, responding to speculation: "He is NOT dropping out before Pennsylvania."

GOP source adds Santo and Newt have met face-to-face at least twice in the last few weeks and have also had some VERY long phone calls recently.

Rasmussen: Santorum 42%, Romney 38% en Pennsylvania

Rasmussen:

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum holds a four-point lead in his home state in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at the upcoming Pennsylvania Republican Primary.

A new statewide telephone survey finds that 42% of Likely GOP Primary Voters support Santorum, while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney picks up 38% of the vote. Texas Congressman Ron Paul earns seven percent (7%), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at six percent (6%). Two percent (2%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Santorum, Pennsylvania y 2016

Todos los observadores coinciden en que a Santorum estas primarias le han servido para restablecer su imagen política, dañada después de su derrota de 2006, y convertirlo en una figura nacional a tener en cuenta en futuras elecciones.

Ahora la pregunta es, ¿podría una posible derrota en su estado el 24 de abril echar a perder todo lo andado estos últimos meses?

NBC News:

But Rick Santorum -- despite starting out this presidential season as an afterthought -- has already accomplished a few important feats that shouldn't be overlooked as attention begins turning to the general election. First, with limited campaign funds and almost no real infrastructure, he ultimately emerged as Mitt Romney's chief rival.

In fact, Santorum's actually won more states so far than Mike Huckabee did in 2008, 11-8. And he's won as many contests as Romney did four years ago.

Second, even if he doesn't win another primary race, Santorum could be a significant player in the 2016 or 2020 presidential contests, although he would face plenty of serious competition (from the likes of Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, etc.).

And third, and perhaps most importantly, Santorum has repaired some of the political damage he sustained in 2006, when he lost his Senate re-election bid in Pennsylvania by a whopping 18 percentage points, 59%-41%.

"It's hard to argue Sen. Santorum hasn't significantly raised his profile nationally among Republican voters, donors and members of the media due to his primary campaign performance," GOP strategist Danny Diaz tells First Read.

Of course, it's exactly that repaired political image, Republican political observers say, that could be at stake in the April 24 primary in his home state of Pennsylvania. A win there could justify him staying in the presidential contest -- and could serve as a springboard to the May primary races.

But a loss in his home state could be embarrassing.

(...) As GOP political consultant Mike Murphy, who once worked for Romney, tweeted, "Will [Santorum] figure out this week that his potential '16 hand is now stronger than his '12 hand and fold? Or stay in and ruin his long game?"

And if he decides to stay in the race, how he campaigns could be just as important to his reputation, Republicans argue.

"The story until now is a pretty compelling one about a leader who rose from also-ran status to one-time front-runner. If he gets out now, or stays in but runs a positive-only campaign, that narrative will remain largely intact," says GOP political adviser Todd Harris.

"But if he continues with a quixotic slash-and-burn campaign against the man everyone knows is going to be our nominee, he risks being remembered not as a come-from-behind leader, but as a petulant politician who put selfish self-interest ahead of defeating President Obama."