Rep. Paul Ryan (R) – Wis., who recently endorsed Romney’s campaign, on stage during a campaign stop at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. (Associated Press)

What are Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum still doing in the Presidential race? Gingrich has no chance of becoming the nominee, and has more or less said so himself. He should drop out after the primaries on Tuesday.

Santorum does actually have a numerical chance of winning the nomination, however it is almost impossible that he will pull it off. He has to win 76 percent of the delegates remaining to get to 1,144 delegates. That’s just not going to happen, sorry Rick.

Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee for president. He should win the three primaries on Tuesday in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Wisconsin. These are all winner-take-all primaries, so he will add to his delegate lead considerably. It is insurmountable at this point.

Santorum and Gingrich claim that their strategy is to win enough delegates to deny Romney the nomination and force a floor fight at the convention. However, considering that Romney has an outright majority of delegates that have been awarded so far, in addition to the fact that several very favorable Romney states have not voted yet, such as California, New York, Utah and New Jersey, it is very likely if not certain that he will reach the required number.

Even if Romney does not get enough delegates at the end of this process to claim the nomination, he will be at most 100 delegates short of the magic number. In addition, he will be 500 or more delegates ahead of Santorum and the clear leader in the popular vote. The convention is not going to disenfranchise the millions more Republican voters that have voted for Romney over everybody else and award the nomination to Santorum or Gingrich.

Now, we know why Gingrich is still in the race: he suffers from delusions of grandeur and he is still peeved with Romney after his stinging losses in Iowa and Florida. However, with the recent news of dramatic staff downsizing and a secret meeting with Mitt Romney, perhaps the reality that no one wants him to be President is starting to set in at the Gingrich campaign.

The more interesting question is why Rick Santorum is still in the race. He has clearly begun showing signs of desperation: he has become whiny, he curses at reporters and just in general acts like a child.

He suggested recently that Barack Obama would be better than Romney as President. After that remark set off somewhat of a controversy, he was forced to take it back. But here’s the thing: he might actually believe it. Santorum, more than any other candidate, sees himself as a conservative crusader who is going to save the morality of this country.

Santorum perceives Romney as unconcerned with issues such as abortion, gay marriage and other religious issues. Romney’s campaign has been focused on the economy and jobs almost exclusively, and it takes quite a lot of prying to get an answer out of him on social topics, so there is some truth to that.

For über-Catholic Santorum and his supporters who are mostly evangelicals (Romney has actually been winning Catholics so far), the fact that the Republican Party is going to nominate a candidate who could be fairly described as a moderate is almost heretical.

They need to calm down and remember that the goal is to get Barack Obama out of the White House. Romney is a good person who has lived a religiously devoted (even if he is a Mormon, which make no mistake has hurt him among evangelicals), conservative private life. He also understands that talking about social issues extensively and appearing inflexible almost to a fault turns more people off than it attracts people.

However, on the most important issue, the issue that is going to decide this election, the economy, Romney’s plan is undoubtedly conservative. There could not be more of a stark contrast between where Romney and President Obama want to take this country. Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, who both endorsed Romney this week, agree: it is time to get behind Mitt Romney so we can focus on defeating the President.

Andrew is a sophomore majoring in finance, French and markets and culture.