text: Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, quit the race April 10 but has stopped short of publicly embracing Romney as the Republicans' standard bearer after a bitter primary season that featured Santorum calling Romney "the worst Republican in the country" to run against Obama.
  Not long after, Santorum was telling CNN's Piers Morgan about Romney: "It's very clear that he's going to be the Republican nominee and I'm going to be for the Republican nominee and we're going to do everything we can to defeat Barack Obama." Morgan could not goad him into a proper endorsement.
  Gingrich all but bowed out last week, saying: "It's clear Romney is the nominee and the focus should be on defeating Obama. We should not focus on defeating ourselves."
  Romney, for his part, has been working to bring the party together after a bruising primary season, and nods from Santorum and Gingrich could help mend those wounds. Both Santorum and Gingrich have fervent followings among conservatives who make up the base of the party and who generally view Romney skeptically because of his past positions on a host of issues.