Romney wins Illinois: Santorum and Gingrich need to stop.

According to CNN, Mitt Romney is on 562 delegates, compared to Rick Santorum on 249 and Newt Gingrich on 137.  There is only 1267 delegates left, and Santorum needs 895 delegates, 70% of the remaining delegates.  Gingrich is worse off.  He needs 79% of the remaining delegates, a massive 1007 delegates.  And we are about half way through this process.

No way can Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich turn this around.  Both Newt and Rick have indicated they are looking to hang around to the Convention.  But if neither of them have the most delegates, and Mitt Romney does, Romney will be chosen, not Santorum or Gingrich.

Both men need to suspend their campaigns now.

We suspect that Newt might quit the race if he loses Louisiana.  Rick Santorum on the other hand, doesn't seem to understand he's running out of time.  The math is heading up towards impossible, though Newt will get there first, and if neither man wants to be totally shunned by their Republican colleagues, they should both bail out of the race soon.

Of course, it seems that Newt has so much personal animosity to Mitt Romney, I wouldn't rule out Newt making an independent run.  Not that I expect him to do well in such a run.