Gingrich, Gibbs this Sunday on Face the Nation
This Sundays Guests are Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich, Robert Gibbs, an Obama Campaign advisor, and CBS News's Chief White House Correspondent Norah O'Donnell and Political Director John Dickerson.
This could be the make or break weekend for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Currently third in delegates with 95 according to CBS News estimates, Gingrich is looking to the South to keep his hopes at the Republican nomination alive.
Last week he won his home state of Georgia and since then has focused his time on Alabama and Mississippi whose voters go to the polls on Tuesday.
"I think we can win a victory of extraordinary proportions, I do want to ask your help the next few days. This is a very very important primary. This is without any question the most important primary that Mississippi's had for the presidency. Mississippi matters in this particular cycle," he said to a group of voters in Southaven, MS.
To win over those Southern votes who have yet to show affinity for Mitt Romney, Gingrich is hitting the former Massachusetts Governor over his lack of conservative credentials and pledges to carry on doing so. "We are staying in this race because I believe that it's going to be impossible for a moderate to win the general election," he said this week in Montgomery Alabama.
And Gingrich is sticking to his new issue focus - the price of gasoline, even stopping at a Texaco station in Pell City, Alabama.
"Look, if you want 9 dollar a gallon gasoline and bowing to Saudi kings, vote for Obama, if you like 2.50 or less and be independent, vote for Newt Gingrich," he said.
All of this comes as voices are growing in the Conservative movement asking Gingrich to drop out and throw his support to the other conservative in the race, Rick Santorum who is second in total delegates with 140, compared to Romney's 391, and who had a strong Super Tuesday showing winning Oklahoma, North Dakota, Tennessee and narrowly losing Ohio to Romney.
"Gingrich has never been in a more influential position in deciding the outcome of the nomination; he could be a kingmaker if he stepped out of the race and threw his support to another candidate," wrote Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council this week.
As he continues the campaign grind, the New York Times reports today, under the headline "Amid Calls to Quit, Gingrich seems more subdued," that "the candidate and his staff seemed to be celebrating in a nostalgic way a possible end to their long, winding journey," including the candidate himself dancing late into the night with his wife at their hotel bar.
What does that say about the longevity of his campaign? Can Gingrich win in the south to carry on his quest? What will he do if he falls short? Would a Romney win end the questions about the health of his campaign? What's next for Newt Gingrich? Those will be among the issues as Newt Gingrich joins Bob Schieffer to Face the Nation.
