“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?
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?
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