WASHINGTON - Front-runner Mitt Romney edged into the mop-up phase of the Republican race to challenge President Barack Obama, buoyed by one rival's decision Wednesday to scale back his campaign and another's statement that he would take the No. 2 spot on the party ticket in the fall.
Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, announced he was dramatically curtailing his campaign schedule, laying off about a third of his staff and dismissing his campaign manager as he focuses on a last-ditch effort to win the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention.
And Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum also seemed to publicly acknowledge for the first time that his quest for the presidential nomination may end in failure.
Asked in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network whether he would consider running as Romney's vice-presidential ticketmate, he said: "Of course. I'll do whatever is necessary to help our country."
Meanwhile, Romney aides eagerly spread the word that former President George H.W. Bush would bestow a formal endorsement on Thursday, although they declined to say whether former President George W. Bush has been asked for a public show of support.
Bush has long been in his corner, but aides to Romney said Thursday's event was something different, a formal endorsement from the ex-president and his wife, Barbara.
Bush's son was generally viewed as the more conservative president of the two, but his popularity waned among Republicans as well as Democrats and independents when the economy cratered in 2008.
On Wednesday night, Romney picked up another key endorsement with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida saying it's increasingly clear that Romney will win the nomination and that continuing the primary fight will only damage the effort to defeat Obama.
Rubio, a conservative favourite of Cuban descent, said he's convinced that Romney will govern from the right and will be superior to Obama as a president.
Still, seven months before Election Day, there was ample evidence of a preparation gap with the Democrats.
A spokesman at the Republican National Committee said the party had recently opened campaign offices in three states expected to be battlegrounds this fall and would soon do the same in seven more.
By contrast, Obama's re-election campaign has 18 offices in Florida, nine in Michigan, a dozen in Ohio, 13 in Pennsylvania and seven in Nevada, according to officials. While Romney was campaigning in last winter's Iowa caucuses, Democrats claimed to have made 350,000 calls to voters as part of an early organizational effort.
And while Romney is still raising money for the second half of the primary campaign, Obama recently reported $84 million in the bank for the general election.
Not that Romney was leaving the primary wars behind. He and Restore Our Future, a super PAC that supports him, were outspending Santorum and his allies on television by a margin of more than 4-1, with an attack-heavy diet of television ads.
The Associated Press tally showed Romney with 568 delegates and on a pace to reach the required 1,144 in the remaining primary and caucus states. Santorum has 273, and Gingrich 135.
Romney has reaped several endorsements in the past week, since trouncing Santorum in the Illinois primary.
