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At an afternoon rally Rick Santorum announced that he was effectively ending his campaign for the Republican Party’s Presidential nomination.
Santorum did surprisingly well during the primary season, well exceeding expectations. He ended up winning the second most states and delegates. The problem for Santorum though, was that he was simply unable to stop the much better funded and better organized campaign of Mitt Romney. Romney’s natural coalition was simply larger and his organization advanced help in critical ways, like getting on the ballot in Virginia, which Santorum failed to do.
In the past few weeks it has become clear that there was no way Santorum could stop Romney, particularly after Santorum lost Illinois and Wisconsin. Both the Republican establishment and the GOP base have come around to accepting that Romney is inevitable.
The fact that polling was starting to show that Santorum could potentially lose his home state of Pennsylvania, likely played a big role in encouraging Santorum to end his campaign now to avoid the possible embarrassment.
Santorum’s surprisingly strong performance throughout the primary season helped to significantly improve his conservative brand and promote his status as a spokesman in the conservative movement. By getting out now, Santorum avoids undoing these gains by being seen as a sore loser needlessly hurting the nominee. For Santorum this is probably the smart career move.
With Santorum effectively out of the race, Mitt Romney will be free to focus completely on President Obama and the general election.
27 Comments
Money talks in American politics. Period.
Rats. I really was hoping to get full-on anal from my boyfriend while Ricky accepted the nomination.
What am I going to get when Romney does it? A cheese sandwich?
Probably have to settle for tossed salad.
don’t count on coffee
Credit where credit is due. I figured Santorum to be the first one to drop out. He was polling in the 1-3% range last summer. Yet he managed to run a competitive race, win a bunch of delegates, and put off Mr. Inevitable’s coronation for a couple of months. That’s actually not a bad showing.
He also revealed the cracks in the Republican coalition. He drained a bunch of money from the Romney warchest that won’t be available for the general. He drove the Overton window yet further to the right, until even lifelong Republicans were appalled.
When the Republicans finally split, Santorum could be a big player in the biggest faction. Too bad there won’t be enough of them to win elections.
Eh? Grifter Ricky’s still laughing all the way to his off-shore accounts. This Kabuki Show entitled “Republican Primary” has resulted in a big fat CHA-CHING for he-who-”mysteriously”-is-a-multimillionaire-but-never-has-a-job. Talk about wingnut welfare!! Today in the dictionary, the definition features a neon glowing sign with Icky Ricky’s face prominently displayed.
Icky Ricky did his “job” really really well, didn’t he?? And he was most handsomely compensated for it, too.
Don’t cry for me, Winchester, VA!
Lets not forget there is still a VP nomination out there to be had. IMHO, Icky Ricky has been running for VP all along. I’m from his home district and have watched him ride the coat tails to fame his whole career.
Wont that look just like McCain/Palin?
Romney has no foreign policy cred (money in foreign banks doesn’t qualify), so he needs a running mate that does. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ambassador to somewhere significant, military, intelligence agency, something.
What about McChrystal? Now that he’s canned from the military he can go into politics.
This is good news for McCain.But…but what about those other 2 guys? What’s their names again?Now he can spend less time with his family.
Shucks, I wanted him to take it to the convention.
It’s a sad, sad day for clowns and their cars everywhere.
It was all just a show to keep people entertained and talking. Perry, Gingrich, and Bachman too.
Santorum–Gone, but not forgotten. Gingrich & Paul, forgotten, but not gone.
Bye,bye, Rickie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b26BD5KjH0
…reading he dropped out due to his daughter’s illness.
He had so many hang-ups. None of Santorum’s hang-ups were significant in or for my life.
Santorum living the judgmental, worried-about-womens’-bodies, porn-afflicted, what’s-going-on-in-other-peoples’-bedroom life didn’t help his campaign or the health of his children. Did Santorum project his own hang-ups onto the rest of Americans? Hope his daughter is OK.
Anytime a candidate talks about peoples’ bedrooms or womens’ bodies instead of wanting to make America a more healthy and sane place for workers who actually pay about 30% tax on all income, I turn that candidate way off.
I found it entertaining. Frequently amusing.
Regrettably, however, a disfavorable exhibition of the human species.
I say good riddance and I hope it’s for ever, to this sanctimonious, I’m more moral than you dipshit. The ONLY reason he was not the most despicable one in the clown car is the presence of Gingrich, who raises the despicable bar well above 7 feet.
Rumor has it that the Pope promised to make him a Cardinal and he’ll have a shot at being (v)Il(e) Papa’s replacement, if he’s willing to write a big enough check.
PS. I just started this rumor.
Frankly, my uncle is a priest in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Dioscese. He has it on good authority that, what was his exact quote……… oh, Pope Bendict said, “That Rick Santorum, what do they call him, “Frothy”…is a sanctimonious moron.”
Hey, ya’ think my uncle the priest would lie to me?????
Ricky can now return to the Monastery and dog breeding. Does this mean I don’t have to see his smug face anymore on TV? I hope so.
I just checked, and the man is still frothing at the mouth. Santorum delenda est.
A ridiculous man with a ridiculous message. I would like to think that we would not have to listen to that message anymore, but I am now resigned to having to deal with it for the rest of my life.
There is a god….
I think that may be a dodge on the Pope’s part, or perhaps he sees Rick as a threat to his continued reign of stupidity.
No, he’s hired every reactionary super neocon he could find. He could probably use an evangelical to dilute his mormonism.