Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign...Romney Wins

“This game is a long, long, long way from over,” Just two weeks before the Pennsylvania Primary Election, Rick Santorum announced from his home in Pennsylvania that he has suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday. Though he had quite the comeback it still wasn’t enough to beat Mitt Romney’s predictable nomination. “We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” Mr. Santorum said. He did not give specific reasoning as to why he was ending his candidacy though his direct answer was “part professional and part personal;” he did refer to his daughter’s illness with pneumonia who had been hospitalized over the weekend.  

            It was reported that Mr. Santorum had called Mr. Romney to tell him his plans to end his bid in the race and told Mr. Romney that he is committed to defeating President Obama but not going to endorse right away. Mr. Santorum did in fact accuse Mr. Romney of being a weak competitor against President Obama, but has assured the public that he is going to support and fight to elect a Republican president and to ensure the Republican control of Congress. There was no mention of Mr. Romney in Mr. Santorum’s farewell speech, he focused more on the stories he had recounted and the people he had met during his time as a presidential candidate.

            Mr. Romney had a response to Mr. Santorum’s withdrawal, “Senator Santorum is an able and worthy competitor, and I congratulate him on the campaign he ran,” Mr. Romney said. “He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation. We both recognize that what is most important is putting the failures of the last three years behind us and setting America back on the path to prosperity.”

            Mr. Santorum was running a “shoestring” campaign in Iowa and was limited to only a few supports riding in a pickup truck in late December. This started Santorum’s second round of popularity when he defeated Mr. Romney and then extended too many other Midwest primaries. Though Santorum’s fight was worthwhile, he could not seem to compete with Mr. Romney’s negative ads paid by himself and the “super PAC” called Restore Our Future, which was a main supported by being able to fund million in an effort to capture the nomination for Mr. Romney.

            Both Romney and Santorum were having financial woes with the upcoming weeks with the Pennsylvania primary and tapping to their most vital resources for contributions and having to find alternatives. “Mr. Romney had committed $2.9 million to the Pennsylvania primary, hoping to deliver Mr. Santorum a knockout blow, and Restore Our Future had begun spending there as well.” With the Santorum’s withdrawal this allows Romney as well as the super PAC to spread out their money among other states to keep the Gingrich and Ron Paul out of the public’s serious consideration for the general election against President Obama. This also allows Romney to focus his efforts on the general election and his start of the 7-month campaign against President Obama.

            Santorum had built the reputation to be a social conservative, who was against all options of abortion and same-sex marriage. A colleague of Mr. Santorum’s, Mr. Richard Land who is president of the ethics commission at the Southern Baptist Convention, commented on Mr. Santorum’s withdrawal from the election. “As his friend, I would say, you know you’ve done an incredible job resurrecting your career. You’ve done better than anybody thought you could,” “In eight years, Rick Santorum will be three years younger than Romney is now. He’s only 53 years old,” Mr. Land said. “He’ll be a significant player. I would think he could have a significant role in a Romney campaign and administration if he wanted to.”

Mr. Santorum’s decision will all but clear the way for Mr. Romney to claim the nomination. Even Mr. Gingrich has taken steps to step back and acknowledge that Mr. Romney is going to hold the nomination. In all seriousness Santorum had the only real shot in defeating Romney but even as Romney number of delegates seemed to increase it seemed unreachable.

Mr. Santorum has left this race higher than how he started, looking back when he was first nominated he was nothing more than a man from Pennsylvania with conservation views and a big dream. Now he is looked at with respect and compared much higher than his fellow candidates Michelle Bachman, Jon Hunstman and Rick Perry. With less money and less followers Mr. Santorum was able to be the last standing in the race against Romney, which was seen to be unlikely in the early stages of the election.   
Can we automatically assume Romney is going to win the nomination or still have faith and support in Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul who seem to be hanging by threads now in this stage of the election?