Rick Santorum has vowed he's staying in the Republican primary, but as we've noted, presidential primary history indicates the surest sign a candidate will quit the race is a bunch of headlines noting that he says he's in it to win it. On Thursday, there were a few other little signs that indicated Santorum's candidacy might not be long for this world.

Meeting with conservatives on how to "move forward."

Rick Santorum had a private meeting with several conservative leaders in Virginia Thursday, CNN's Paul Steinhauser reports, "to discuss the best path moving forward." But, CNN's source claims, it "does not have anything to do about Rick getting out of the race."(Again, never a good sign that it's newsworthy you won't drop out.) The New York Times' Katharine Q. Seelye reports that they were actually discussing how to get Newt Gingrich out of the race. She explains, "The prospect that Mr. Gingrich might draw enough votes from Mr. Santorum in Pennsylvania — Mr. Santorum’s home state — on April 24 to cost him the primary has given new urgency to the task of getting him out of the race."

Bad polls in Pennsylvania

And what has Santorum so nervous? Mitt Romney is leading Santorum in his home state, a new survey from Public Policy Polling finds. Romney has 42 percent to Santorum's 37 percent among likely voters in the April 24 contest. And more than half think Santorum doesn't have a realistic chance of winning the nomination. Politico's Mike Allen writes that the poll "will renew buzz... that Santorum will withdraw ahead of the April 24 Pennsylvania primary to avoid humiliation in his home state." Allen predicts Santorum will drop out first, then Ron Paul, then Newt Gingrich.

Taking some time off

Santorum is taking the next four days off -- one day more than Mitt Romney! -- over Easter, MyFoxDC reports. The American Spectator's Aaron Goldstein speculates that with extra time to think things over, maybe Santorum will quit the race Monday. Or maybe not. It will certainly give him a chance to figure out whether more time with his family outweighs not being on TV anymore.

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Elspeth Reeve