At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon GOP candidate Rick Santorum announced that he will suspend his bid for the nomination. Even though Santorum was considerably behind, his campaign was hanging its hat on his home state, Pennsylvania. According to the Wall Street Journal, amongst a group of supporters Santorum declared, CBS News quoted Santorum as saying, “This presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today.”
Santorum’s decision came in the midst of his daughter dealing with a rare illness. Bella, Santorum’s 3-year-old daughter, has a very rare chromosomal disorder that can make contracting a wide variety of illnesses life-threatening. According to ABCnews.com she was released form the hospital on Monday the the 9th and is said to be doing very well.
Yahoo News reports Santorum said, “I feel very, very good about how things are going, and it’s nice to see that reflected in some of the polls.” He also added, “But we have a lot of work to do. A lot of work.”
This leaves it open for speculation of what “a lot of work to do” means. Certainly he wants to convert his base of hard-core religious voters over to Mitt Romney. When pressed if he had spoken to Romney, aides said that he had a phone conversation earlier in the day and meeting planned.
Ron Paul is even trying to cash in on the Santorum drop out. Jesse Benton, Senior campaign manager said, “Dr. Paul is now the last and real conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.”
However, Paul is not the only one trying to gain momentum from Santorum’s sudden departure, The Wall Street Journal has Newt Gingrich declaring, “I am committed to staying in this race all the way to Tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice. We know well that only a conservative can protect life, defend the Constitution, restore jobs and growth and return to a balanced budget.”
According to the updated delegate press counter at the AP Mitt Romney has a total of 661 delegates and is by far the current leader and projected winner of the GOP race. While Santorum had just 285 (mostly right-wing conservatives) and Gingrinch coming in third with just 163.
A right-wing religious website quoted Romney’s campaign as saying, “Senator Santorum is an able and worthy competitor, and I congratulate him on the campaign he ran. 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.”
Weather Santorum decides to endorse Romney or not it really won’t matter as for as the nomination is concerned but Romney has a long way to go to win the presidential election. Acording to a likeability poll conducted by WHDH 66 percent of adults say they like the President while 44 percent like Romney.
