Is it time for Gingrich, Santorum and Paul to bow out?

In an op-ed at the Daily Caller today, American Conservative Union chairman Al Cardenas says the only paths to victory for Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul "feature a contested, anarchic floor fight" during the upcoming GOP convention.

"We don't need a fight on the Convention floor in Tampa to justify the strength of the conservative movement," Cardenas writes. It's time for the GOP candidates to come together in supporting Romney, he argues, to unite the GOP base and defeat President Barack Obama:

With all due respect to my fellow conservative leaders determined to oppose Governor Romney, that is not a worthy endeavor. For the sake of our Republic, I’m not willing to wait until the Republican National Convention to sort this out. It’s time to unite behind a worthy presidential candidate, build our organization and raise the resources necessary to defeat the liberal electoral machine.

Instead of gaming out unrealistic dark horse scenarios, it is far more important for our movement leaders to communicate our RNC platform agenda, dialogue with our nominee about our shared vision for America’s future and do our part to bring this primary to an end.

We are now less than eight months away from one of the most critical elections in a generation — a great decision point for Americans.

Governor Romney is an honorable, worthy, competent, conservative candidate for our next commander-in-chief. I’m proud to support his campaign for president. His opponents ran great races and all four men became better candidates because of the effort. I thank and congratulate them all on their contributions to the race, but their time is over.

I’m calling on my fellow conservatives, for goals both lofty and pragmatic, to join me in supporting the only candidate that can ensure President Obama’s legacy is limited to just four years of fiscal irresponsibility and disregard for our Constitution, and not eight.