The TicketAlternative history: Gingrich-Santorum 2012?
Writing in Bloomberg Businessweek, Joshua Green tells the story of how the Republican primary could have played out much differently in 2012, if only Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich could have gotten along better.
Green reports that both men considered joining forces against Mitt Romney last spring:
As Mitt Romney struggled in the weeks leading up to the Michigan primary, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum nearly agreed to form a joint “Unity Ticket” to consolidate conservative support and topple Romney. “We were close,” former Representative Bob Walker, a Gingrich ally, says. “Everybody thought there was an opportunity.” “It would have sent shock waves through the establishment and the Romney campaign,” says John Brabender, Santorum’s chief strategist.
Talks fell apart, Green writes, when neither party could "agree on who would get to be president."
