Bloomberg: Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum Talked About A 2012 'Unity Ticket'

Yes the 2012 elections have been combed over a thousand times. But what's one more detail, right?

Today, Bloomberg reports that were it not for egos, Mitt Romney could have been toppled by a conservative "unity ticket" featuring Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Had the two united, there would have been a real possibility that Romney wouldn't have made it past the primary process and 2012 would have been truly different race.

But, Bloomberg reports, neither politician would concede and agree to be the vice president on the ticket. We'll let you click over for the full story, but here are a few graphs that explain:

"But the negotiations collapsed in acrimony because Gingrich and Santorum could not agree on who would get to be president. 'In the end,' Gingrich says, 'it was just too hard to negotiate.'

...

"'I was disappointed when Speaker Gingrich ultimately decided against this idea, because it could have changed the outcome of the primary,' Santorum says. 'And more importantly, it could have changed the outcome of the general election.'

"The discussions between the two camps commenced in early February, just after Gingrich got trounced in Florida. Brabender called members of the Gingrich brain trust, hoping they could persuade Gingrich to drop out and endorse Santorum, who was rising in the polls. 'I'll tell you this,' says [Santorum strategist John] Brabender, 'If Gingrich had dropped out at the right time, Santorum would have been the nominee.' Brabender wasn't short on moxie: He wanted Gingrich to declare in the middle of a nationally televised debate that he was dropping out and endorsing Santorum. 'I couldn't write an ad to match the political theater that would have created,' he says."

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.