Romney Campaign Calls Santorum's Convention Push 'Pure Fantasy,' 'Vanity'

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is broadcasting its confidence heading into potentially decisive primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, issuing an email that dismissed outright Rick Santorum's chances of winning the nomination.

While Romney failed to score a knockout victory on Super Tuesday, his campaign has argued that Romney's substantial delegate lead is essentially insurmountable. Santorum disputed that notion on Monday, saying that conservative voters would keep him in the race until the Republican nominating convention in August.

I think you've been listening to math class and delegate math class instead of looking at the reality of the situation, Santorum said. The reality of the situation is that it's going to be very difficult for anyone to get to the number of delegates that is necessary to win with the majority at the convention. The only way, really, I believe that someone is going to get there is if the conservatives unite.

The current Associated Press count gives 454 delegates to Santorum's 217, both far short of the 1,144 a candidate needs to lock up the nomination. An email from the Romney campaign sent on Tuesday morning said that Romney's rivals would be unable to close the gap, dismissing Santorum's claim as pure fantasy, or vanity, or both.

Today is another election day and yet another day that our opponents will be unable to make up the ground needed to get to 1,144 delegates, the email begins.

The email predicted that Romney, Santorum and Gingrich will split the vote in Mississippi and Alabama, an outcome that would mean Gingrich and Santorum would continue to trail Romney. So far, exit polls have indicated that Santorum and Gingrich have indeed divided voter blocs that Romney has struggled with, such as low-income voters, very conservative voters and those who care most about nominating a true conservative.

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