A top Mitt Romney surrogate said Tuesday morning that Rick Santorum's ego is the only thing keeping him in the presidential race and that he should have dropped out already.
"It was time for him to go two weeks ago," former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu said when asked on MSNBC when Santorum should drop out. "He's hanging on with ego."
Romney and his surrogates have been careful so far not to explicitly call for Santorum to get out of the race — even while arguing that is exactly what he should do.
"I’m not going to make that [decision] for them," Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said in late March when asked when Santorum and Newt Gingrich should drop out, before arguing that the delegate math makes Romney the odds-on favorite. "I understand about the emotion and the hard work and the sweat that goes into a campaign; they have been at it for a long time."
But Sununu, as is standard for the fiery former governor, was less delicate in his analysis.
"I guess he wants to get to Pennsylvania," he said, referring to the April 24 primary in Santorum's home state. "The problem he has in Pennsylvania is he has to decide whether he can do well in Pennsylvania and win a majority of the delegates there or be awfully embarrassed by not getting the majority of the delegates in his own state."
Recent polling shows the race close — and Romney with momentum — in that state.
