WeAskAmerica/FOX News: Romney leads in Illinois

[Mr. Morden]

Paul and Gingrich should drop out now. It's about time.

Paul should endorse his pal Romney and Gingrich should endorse Santorum and they should encourage their delegates to vote for Romney or Santorum at the convention (if this is possible).

No, Gingrich shouldn't endorse Santorum.  That would just allow his pledged delegates to become free agents, with many of them probably going to Romney.  He should suspend his campaign, not endorse anyone else, and hold his delegates in reserve, so that he has leverage, in the event of a brokered convention scenario.

[Mr. Morden]

Paul and Gingrich should drop out now. It's about time.

Paul should endorse his pal Romney and Gingrich should endorse Santorum and they should encourage their delegates to vote for Romney or Santorum at the convention (if this is possible).

No, Gingrich shouldn't endorse Santorum.  That would just allow his pledged delegates to become free agents, with many of them probably going to Romney.  He should suspend his campaign, not endorse anyone else, and hold his delegates in reserve, so that he has leverage, in the event of a brokered convention scenario.

Wouldn't this do more harm than good ? Because if Gingrich drops out and endorses Santorum and Santorum goes on to win a few very important states (TX, NC, IN, KY, WV, PA, maybe MD, OR too), then these "free agents" would be more likely to support Santorum than Romney. But if he does not endorse, Santorum might run behind Romney in several of those states and Gingrich's "leverage" at the convention would be about zero, because Romney has the necessary delegates already.

Gingrich's endorsement isn't going to mean anything.  Whether he endorses are not isn't going to matter wrt the voters of TX, NC, IN, etc.  What matters is whether he's in the race or not.

[Mr. Morden]

I really don't understand why Santorum wasted two days campaigning at Puerto Rico (a WTA contest where he had little hope to begin with) instead of barnstorming Illinois.

It's only WTA if the winner breaks 50%.  Otherwise it's proportional.  (Though I suspect that Romney will break 50%.)