Santorum Predicts Deep South Contests Will Force Newt Out

Rick Santorum has been careful not to publicly pressure Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race, but the former senator predicted Friday that will likely happen on its own after next week.

Santorum told Bloomberg in an interview that if all goes as planned during the next several nominating contests—specifically the Kansas caucuses on Saturday and next Tuesday's primary contests in Alabama and Mississippi—he'll be left going head-to-head with Mitt Romney moving forward.

Here's the full quote via Politico (emphasis added):

"This weekend we have Kansas, and we feel like we're going to have a huge win there. And, in fact, I think the polling is so good that both Governor Romney and Newt Gingrich have decided not to campaign there. That's a good sign. And so with that wind coming up on Saturday going into Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, we think we're going to have a little wind at our back. And our feeling is, we finish first or second here, that's exactly what we hope to do. And hopefully after this Tuesday, this will be a two-person race, and we can get down to business of deciding whether we want a conservative or a moderate to go up against Barack Obama."

Gingrich has so far said he has no plans of dropping out of the race, although he has suggested that the Alabama and Mississippi contests are must wins for his campaign.

Santorum is predicted to easily win Saturday's Kansas caucuses, and appears to stand a good chance of following that up with strong performances in Mississippi and Alabama given his recent Super Tuesday victory in Tennessee. Gingrich, meanwhile, has claimed South Carolina and his home state of Georgia, and appears to be betting big that the upcoming round of southern nominating contests will keep him afloat.

The fourth member of the GOP field, Ron Paul, has shown no signs of dropping out and has vowed to continue his nickel-and-dime delegate strategy the whole way to the Tampa convention. But given the Texas congressman has significantly less overlap with Santorum than Gingrich does, his continuing presence is viewed as less of a concern to the Santorum camp as it attempts to derail Romney's mathematical march to the nomination.