Gingrich pitches to Santorum delegates as rival exits race

{mosads}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 might 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.