(Image Credit: Jeff Roberson/AP) 
 
 MCKINNEY, Texas - After stunning victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado Tuesday night, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum told a group of pastors here today that despite his focus on "the role of family in our society," he is not running to be "pastor in chief" and that clergy should be working harder. 
 
 "It's not because I want to be the pastor of the United States," he said. "I have no intention and no desire to be the pastor of this country. There are pastors all over here who, you know, you guys can do a little better than you're doing right now, I'll be honest with you," Santorum said before asking for an "Amen" from the crowd. 
 
 "We could be doing a little better out there in the churches, but I'm leaving that to you, all right? But that doesn't mean I'm not going to stand and fight for the things that are consistent with what this country was founded upon, which was a moral foundation," Santorum said. 
 
 He briefly mentioned his victories Tuesday night, saying he consistently benefits from being underestimated. He beat Mitt Romney 2-1 in Missouri, which awarded no delegates. 
 
 "I got elected to the United States Congress. After these elections, I looked back and I just had to thank God, because there's no way I should have won this election," the former Pennsylvania senator said. "One of the great gifts that I've had in my political career is that no one ever thinks that I could ever win anything. The gift of being underestimated is a wonderful gift. I think you may have seen a little bit of that last night." 
 
 The owner of the event space - the Bella Donna chapel - a Santorum supporter, started inviting pastors from the Dallas area about a week ago to hear the former congressman speak. 
 
 About 100 clergy packed into the small chapel, while an overflow tent next door was open to the public and held several hundred despite the cold temperatures. 
 
 Santorum, 53, greeted the crowd and on his way out told a mass of reporters trailing him that his campaign had raised $400,000 in the past two days. 
 
 The main reason for traveling to Texas, despite no upcoming primary, is for the candidate to attend a fundraiser in the Dallas area. An aide Tuesday evening told ABC News the state is "very generous," and donors here were excited to meet him. 
 
 The address was notably devoid of much political discussion, although he did accuse President Obama of restricting Americans' right to freedom of religion, as he has since the Department of Health and Human Services controversial decision last week to require all institutions that provide health insurance, including Catholic hospitals and universities, to cover contraception and emergency contraception. 
 
 "We even see the Obama administration right now not talking about freedom of religion," Santorum said. "They now start using the term freedom of worship, which, how many people think all that religion is all about is worship? It's what you're about every single day. It's not just the freedom to gather and worship, but it's the freedom to go out and live that faith every day." 
 
 As he usually does when addressing churches and religious groups, he spoke about his personal testimonial and religious awakening, telling the group he "didn't realize how dry and parched" he was when he first came to Congress and began attending bible study groups. 
 
 He told the story of the son he lost a few hours after birth in 1996 named Gabriel and spoke about his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who suffers from the rare, genetic condition, Trisomy 18. 
 
 Santorum and members of the audience were clearly emotional and the crowd was rapt, hanging on to every word. 
 
 Bella was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago with a grave case of double pneumonia. She was released a few days ago and the group today presented Santorum with a painting of his daughter with angel wings that will hang in the chapel, a space made to look like a Roman church. 
 
 He also brought up how he got involved in work to restrict abortion rights and when he first entered the Senate it was not an issue he was particularly passionate about, especially because it was a risky political move. 
 
 "You can be the most conservative person ever. You can even vote pro-life," Santorum said. "You can vote against everything, you can vote for no government, and you're fine. But once you speak out on the moral issues, you now have your head above and out of the trench and you are going to be shot at. 
 
 "And that's why most members of Congress won't talk about it. They'll vote that way, but they will not go out and talk about this issue. Unless it's in front of a pro-life group, and then the press gives you a pass. But to actually do anything, then you were a theocrat, you were the pastor in chief. You are this radical that wants to try to force your views on everybody else and try to moralize everybody, when all you're doing is standing up for the dignity of every human life. But that doesn't matter. It's one thing to vote that way, but it's another thing to get out and talk about those issues." 
 
 He also addressed the California Proposition 8 ruling for the first time, which found the state's ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional. 
 
 He said the decision read as though anyone who opposes same-sex marriage is "bigot." 
 
 "Where's the tolerance in that?" Santorum asked, calling the decision the "intolerance of the left." 
 
 "They want their world view and if you question them, you're haters, bigots," Santorum said. 
 
 At the end, the group surrounded the candidate, extended their hands and began praying for his health, safety and candidacy. ||||| 6 years ago 
 
 Florence, South Carolina (CNN) - Newt Gingrich is urging competitors Rick Santorum and Rick Perry bow out of the Republican presidential race so conservatives can rally behind one "anti-Mitt Romney" candidate. 
 
 A reporter asked the former House speaker if the former Pennsylvania senator should drop out of the race. "Well I would be delighted if he decided to endorse me," Gingrich said, but added it was Santorum and Perry's decision to make. 
 
 Tune in Thursday at 8 p.m. ET for the CNN/Southern Republican Presidential Debate hosted by John King and follow it on Twitter at #CNNDebate. For real-time coverage of the South Carolina primary, go to CNNPolitics.com and on the CNN apps for iPhone, iPad, Android or other phones. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 "So I am respectful that Rick has every right to run as long as he feels that's what he should do, but from the stand point of the conservative movement, consolidating into a Gingrich candidacy would in fact virtually guarantee a victory on Saturday," Gingrich said in Florence Tuesday. "And I'd be delighted if either Perry or Santorum wanted to do that." 
 
 Gingrich has acknowledged he needs to win South Carolina's primary in order to stay in the race. He is also acutely aware that someone needs to beat the frontrunner on January 21 or the nomination will be locked in for Romney. 
 
 Santorum came in a close second in Iowa and eked out a fourth place finish – ahead of Gingrich – in New Hampshire, so he isn't ready to concede just yet. After the debate, he dismissed the former speaker's claim that a vote for him is essentially a vote for Romney. 
 
 "I'm a friend of Newt's, he's a good man, but the idea that someone who is 0 and 2 in races is that I am hurting him. Yeah I'm hurting him. I'm beating him. That's the difference," said Santorum. 
 
 Boosted by another strong debate performance in Myrtle Beach Monday night, Gingrich spent the day at multiple events in Florence and Columbia trying to convince voters he is the best GOP candidate to go up against President Barack Obama in the general election. 
 
 "I think I'm the only conservative, if you look at the polling, I am the only conservative who realistically has a chance to be the nominee," he said at a town hall in Florence. "So any vote toward Perry or Santorum in effect is a vote to allow Romney to become the nominee. Because we have got to bring conservatives together." 
 
 The former speaker said the reason conservatives should coalesce around him and not Santorum is because he knows how to design a national campaign. 
 
 "I actually know how to set up a conservative alternative to Obama in a way that will be very, very effective and very strategic. And I don't think Santorum can do any of that. Again, it's not because he isn't a nice guy. He doesn't have any of the knowledge for how to do something like this." 
 
 Santorum defended his campaign prowess Tuesday night, arguing his wins over Gingrich in the early voting states speak for themselves. 
 
 – Follow Shawna Shepherd on Twitter: @ShepherdCNN. 
 
 
 
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 Romney says his effective tax rate is 15% ||||| With back-to-back losses in the Deep South Tuesday night, Newt Gingrich suffered a third defeat: He lost any of the remaining logic behind his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. 
 
 His claims to primacy in the South after winning the South Carolina and Georgia primaries evaporated with losses in both Mississippi and Alabama. 
 
 Adding to the sting? The former House speaker who used to represent the Atlanta suburbs in Congress lost both to Rick Santorum, a former senator from the North - Pennsylvania. 
 
 In addition, the fig leaf Gingrich has claimed as the target of relentless and excessive negative advertising from rival Mitt Romney dissolved as Santorum started to win contests and he himself became the target of the former Massachusetts governor’s wrath. 
 
 Santorum has shown an ability to win in spite of it, not lose because of it. 
 
 That leaves the final argument Gingrich has made: that he is the conservative alternative to the “Massachusetts moderate” he has branded Romney. 
 
 A string of wins not just in the South but also the Midwest has lent credence to Santorum’s claim that, rather, he is the true right-wing alternative to Romney. 
 
 It also buttresses his argument that he could fare even better in his quest for the nomination if Gingrich quit the race so he could go head-to-head with frontrunner. 
 
 Even before the polls closed, Gingrich was portending primary disaster, with his staff issuing a memorandum offering a preemptive justification for him remaining a candidate should he lose both of the evening’s contests. 
 
 Senior Adviser Randy Evans and Political Director Martin Baker argued that “Gingrich is well positioned to win the GOP nomination.” 
 
 They noted that heading into Louisiana, only states with a total of 1,141 possible delegates will have voted - short itself of the 1,144 needed for the nomination. 
 
 “The sequencing and pace of the second half favors Newt. When this process started, Newt’s team had two goals: block an early Romney nomination; and plan for a sequenced and paced second half. Newt stopped Romney in South Carolina and subsequently weathered a multi-million dollar barrage of attacks in Florida, surviving to win in Georgia on Super Tuesday,” wrote Evans and Baker. 
 
 “Here is the bottom-line reality: this nomination will not be decided until the fourth quarter – and that is not until June. It also means that the candidate who closes strongest in this race is going to win,” they added. “So buckle up. This race is not going to be won or lost over backroom deals or endless and mind-numbing discussions in the media over delegate counts.” 
 
 The campaign also tried to dispel the ongoing speculation about his candidacy ending by issuing a schedule with seven stops in Illinois between today and Thursday. 
 
 Gingrich himself told his supporters in a non-concession speech: “If you’re the frontrunner and you keep coming in third, you’re not much of a frontrunner.” 
 
 The Gingrich campaign wasn’t the only one with overly optimistic expectations for Tuesday. 
 
 Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor and onetime GOP candidate who now supports Romney, told CNN: “The resilience of Mitt Romney is starting to show through. When he was way behind in Florida, he came back and beat Newt Gingrich. When he was behind in Ohio, he came back and beat Rick Santorum. The same in Michigan and some other places.” 
 
 He added: “I mean if Mitt Romney does well in those Southern states tonight, the script gets rewritten. I mean that’s a breakthrough moment.” 
 
 The candidate himself was strident. 
 
 “Senator Santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign,” Romney told CNN. “I mean, he’s far behind in the delegate count. He’s far behind in the popular vote count. If you look at the math of how many delegates he’d have to win to become the nominee, it’s a very difficult road for him.” 
 
 In a statement after the results were in, Romney said: “I am pleased that we will be increasing our delegate count in a very substantial way after tonight. Ann and I made a lot of new friends in Alabama and Mississippi and we look forward to campaigning in those states in the general election.” 
 
 Senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told CNN that Romney’s goal was not to win an “away game” in the South, but to secure one-third of the delegates up for grabs Tuesday. 
 
 Doing so, he argued, would maintain a status quo in the overall campaign standings. 
 
 “Look, this is a delegate contest,” said Fehrnstrom. “Once the dust clears, you’ll be able to look and see that there really will be no ground that our opponents have made up against Mitt Romney.” 
 
 Santorum scoffed at that assessment through the day and during his victory remarks Tuesday night in Lafayette, La., where he had pre-positioned in anticipation of that state’s primary next week. 
 
 “Well, for someone who thinks this race is inevitable, he spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable,” Santorum said in a shot at Romney. 
 
 He added that he would “compete everywhere,” and said: “The time is now for conservatives to pull together.” 
 
 The former senator argues that he is the conservative of choice because he can compete against President Obama on all issues, including health care, where he says Romney will falter because he signed a universal health care law in Massachusetts that was the model for Obama’s federal plan. 
 
 The fourth and final candidate in the race, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, exceeds even Gingrich in being a longshot for the nomination. 
 
 Through Tuesday night, he continues to be the only candidate who has not won either a primary or a caucus. 
 
 He largely skipped the South, despite being a Texan, and instead is concentrating on the Illinois primary next week. 
 
 His campaign touted a rally he is holding today with over 1,000 voters at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. 
 
 As impressive as that number may be, though, if it doesn’t translate into votes, it won’t help him advance toward the goal he, Gingrich, and the others share: being elected president of the United States. 
 
 Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.
– That triple bogey must have stung: Mitt Romney made a point to call out Rick Santorum by name today. Speaking to reporters in Atlanta, Romney said Santorum and Newt Gingrich were part of the Republican party that "lost its way" by spending too much federal money while in office, reports CNN. "In this race, I'm the only guy that hasn't spent time in Washington," he said. "And Senator Santorum and Speaker Gingrich, they are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats." Santorum, for his part, spoke to a group of pastors in Texas and said he has "no desire to be pastor of this country," notes ABC News. "But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to stand and fight for the things that are consistent with what this country was founded upon, which was a moral foundation." He also alluded to his big night: "The gift of being underestimated is a wonderful gift." Rush Limbaugh, meanwhile, took delight in pointing out how "shocked" the GOP establishment was after Santorum's wins, which he says only proves "how insulated they are," reports Politico.