Newt Gingrich acknowledges the inevitable.

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says he will support front-runner Mitt Romney if he garners the delegates needed for the nomination.

“I think you have to be realistic, given the size of his organization, given the number of primaries he’s won, he is far and away the most likely Republican nominee,” Gingrich said this morning on Fox News Sunday.

“If he does get to 1,144 delegates, I’ll support him and I’ll do everything I can this fall to help him defeat Obama because the primary goal of the entire Republican party has to be to defeat Barack Obama,” he said.

“This makes this maybe the most important election of our lifetime.”

Well, of course he thinks this is “the most important election of our lifetime.” He has to say that. Otherwise he’d look like a damn fool going $4.5 million in debt just to sell books and feed his monstrous ego.

So at long last we can close the book on this episode of Mr. Gingrich’s career and let him slip quietly into the oblivion he’s so deeply deserved since 1998. One can only hope.