Approaching the halfway mark of the primary season, Gingrich has finished first in a grand total of two states: South Carolina and his home state of Georgia.  Story highlights Gingrich suffers devastating losses in Mississippi and Alabama 
 
 Gingrich has lost ground among key GOP voting blocs 
 
 Santorum has two big wins Tuesday, but has a tough climb toovercome Romney 
 
 Santorum and Gingrich hope to prevent Romney from winning a majority of delegates 
 
 If Newt Gingrich can't win Alabama and Mississippi, where can he win? The same in Michigan and some other places.” 
 
 He added: “I mean if Mitt Romney does well in those Southern states tonight, the script gets rewritten. "This is a grassroots campaign for president," Santorum told a group of supporters in Louisiana Tuesday night. And if the race can be pushed into the convention, Gingrich supporters say, any sense that the former Massachusetts governor is the inevitable nominee would be punctured. The fourth and final candidate in the race, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, exceeds even Gingrich in being a longshot for the nomination. Through Tuesday night, he continues to be the only candidate who has not won either a primary or a caucus.
– Newt Gingrich lost both Mississippi and Alabama last night, and the calls for him to drop out have risen to a deafening roar. Here's what pundits are saying: "If Newt Gingrich can't win Alabama and Mississippi, where can he win?" asks CNN. The states are "virtual home turf" for the ex-speaker. Dig deeper, and the numbers keep looking bad; Gingrich saw sharp declines among key groups like very conservative voters and evangelicals. Gingrich "lost any of the remaining logic behind his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination," writes Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe. He can't even claim he was derailed by Mitt Romney's attack machine—Rick Santorum "has shown an ability to win in spite of it." NPR notes that it's now impossible for Gingrich to get the 1,144 delegates needed to beat Romney. "Gingrich has long been an advocate for thinking 'outside the box,' but lately he has moved outside the box where one finds the calculator, abacus, and the times table." "It is time for Santorum vs. Romney and let the chips fall where they may," agrees Erick Erickson of Red State. A one-on-one contest will give Romney "a run for his money he needs to become a candidate conservatives can potentially rally around." But don't hold your breath. Gingrich's advisers tell the Wall Street Journal that he's staying in—purely to make sure Romney doesn't get enough delegates to clinch the nomination.