Rick Santorum (aka Mr. Frothy) has surprised nearly everyone. He suspended his campaign before his own home state votes on April 24th. Was he afraid he might lose in his home state (Pennsylvania)? Or did he just finally read the writing on the wall, and realize that there was no way for him to win a majority of the delegates and become the nominee? Or did he finally give in to pressure from party officials (who are looking for a way to end this embarrassing debacle).
We'll probably never know what the reason was, but Santorum has now joined the ranks of the other wannabes who've dropped out (like Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Huntsman, Pawlenty, Johnson, and even Trump). Yesterday, Santorum told reporters:
"We made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me and we will suspend our campaign effective today. We are not done fighting."
Santorum said he had called Romney earlier in the day and informed him of the decision. At this point, it should be noted that there were two things Santorum didn't do. He didn't throw his support behind any other candidate. And he didn't release the delegates he has won so they could support another candidate. All he did was stop campaigning.
Does this move by Santorum officially end the nomination race? Well, no. Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) still does not have the required number of delegates to give him the nomination. And even if he wins every delegate from the five states voting on April 24th, he will still not have enough delegates. Romney now has to be the odds-on favorite to grab the nomination, but this race is going to continue for a while.
The real question is what are the teabaggers and evangelicals going to do now? Are they going to finally give up and throw their support to Romney (something they've refused to do for months now)? Or are they just going to slide over to another "anti-Romney" candidate (like they have done time after time)? After all, Gingrich is still in the race, and Paul (although he's proven to be too crazy for even the teabaggers and evangelicals). It will be interesting to see what these two groups do now.
For his part, Gingrich was quick to try and grab the Santorum supporters, saying:
"I am committed to staying in this race all the way to Tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice. I humbly ask Senator Santorum’s supporters to visit Newt.org to review my conservative record and join us as we bring these values to Tampa."
another one bites the dust.
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