Gingrich: It's 'Far and Away' Mitt Romney

Newt Gingrich apparently might know when to at least symbolically fold 'em, because he sounded a lot like a guy ready to throw his support behind Mitt Romney today. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Gingrich appeared to embrace the frontrunner, dismissing his previous attacks as just "part of the business," reports Politico. Highlights from the interview, with Roll Call and CNN contributing:

• On Romney: "I hit him as hard as I could, he hit me as hard as he could. Turns out he had more things to hit with than I did. That's part of the business."
• On Romney's chances: "Given the size of his organization, given the number of primaries he's won, he is far and away the most likely Republican nominee. If he does get to 1,144 delegates, I'll support him.

• On common goals: "We're both grandparents. We really see this as the fight for the future of our grandchildren's country. We really see this as not just defeating Obama but changing Washington."
• On the prize: "We are absolutely committed to defeating Barack Obama. This is the most important election, in some ways, since 1860. Barack Obama's a genuine radical."
• On Romney's conservative bona fides: He's "conservative enough (and) I suspect he will accept a solid, conservative platform, but he does have consultants who are of the Etch a Sketch tradition."
• On Gingrich 2012: "I'm glad I did this. For me it was important as a citizen to try to do some very hard things. To try to bring new ideas and new approaches. It turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be, but it was the right thing for me to do, both in my life and where I thought the country was. I have no regrets."
• But he's still not quitting: “The only way I’ll be the nominee is if Romney makes a major mistake and ends up with a number of his delegates saying they just can’t do that. On the other hand, that has happened in American history, and as a historian, I’m probably the calmest person about not getting out of anyone you know.”

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)