Gingrich and Santorum Nearly Formed “Unity Ticket” to Beat Romney


If not for a couple of massive egos, Mitt Romney may never have been the GOP nominee. Josh Green reports that last February, during the Republican primaries, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum nearly joined forces to consolidate their support against Romney. First, after Gingrich lost Florida, Santorum’s people called him and asked him to drop out. Gingrich had a better plan.

He proposed that both men join forces but remain in the race, each concentrating on the states where he matched up best against Romney. Gingrich thought he could carry Georgia, Delaware, Washington, and Wisconsin (from which his wife, Callista, hails). Santorum would focus on other states in the South and the upper Midwest.

The only problem was, neither could decide who would be president and who would be vice-president.

Gingrich made an elaborate historical argument [Note: of course he did] that when the party hasn’t been able to agree on a nominee, it always settles on the senior figure. Santorum wasn’t persuaded, and urged Gingrich to do what was best for the conservative movement. Neither man would yield. “I’d like to have had Santorum drop out, and he’d have liked me to drop out,” Gingrich says. In the end, they both dropped out.

Now that would have made for a fun general election. [Businessweek]