GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Tuesday he is suspending his campaign.He made the announcement at the Gettysburg Hotel in Gettysburg, Pa., talking about his young daughter's illness and reflecting on the campaign.His 3-year-old daughter Bella was taken to a Virginia hospital Friday with pneumonia. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, left the campaign trail until this afternoon. The child has a life-threatening genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18."She's a fighter," said Santorum, standing beside his wife and children. "She's doing exceptionally well."
As those of you who know us may recall, we've got our own experience with Trisomy 18, so my hat is off to the Santorum family for persevering through the most difficult job application process in the world while dealing with this extremely difficult family situation, all with exceptional grace. Thoughts and prayers are with them.
Regarding the political calculus here, though, given that Gingrich and Ron Paul are waaaaaaay behind in the polls this makes it pretty much a lock for a Romney nomination.
I've read a bunch of analysis on this already and it's all mushing together so I'm not certain who said it, but the point should be made that Santorum, with little money and never considered a 'serious' candidate, ran a heckuva campaign and ended up as the last 'serious' competitor to the self-funded Romney. Despite these things, he won 11 state primaries/caucuses, proving he was a legitimate contender. I've seen in more than one corner that the most likely explanation is that Santorum couldn't persuade Gingrich, Paul, and other key GOPers to form a coalition to take down Romney, it was only a matter of time until Romney won out, anyway.
In my opinion, Santorum was the least-worst remaining candidate in the race. Ironically, that's exactly how I felt about Romney in 2008, when McCain finally won out. Egad, are we really doing this again?
Leave it to the Republican establishment to follow up an historic conservative-driven, grass-roots ground swell of Republican support in 2010 tied directly to demands for fiscal responsibility and the repeal of Obamacare with the successful nomination of a big-government liberal Republican who implemented the little brother of Obamacare and bankrupted the state of Massachusetts. Nice work, geniuses. If there was anyone who could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it's these people.
*sigh*
We'll see. Yes, Romney is an awful candidate. Yes, he's a (let's be generous here) lukewarm conservative at best. Yes, he's the architect of the model for the single most destructive, expensive, and government-enabling legislation in American history. But it looks like he's our guy, and he's still less awful than Barack Obama. Like I said when McCain became the nominee in 2008: who would you rather have, the guy you agree with 50% of the time, or the guy you agree with 1% of the time? If this is the stage that is set, then we have to deal with it, so it's time to rally around our awful guy in order to maximize the chances of beating the abysmally awful other guy. I'm guessing the VP pick will be key here - if it's someone like Chris Christy or Paul Ryan, or another person with really high favorables and a willingness to pick a fight, then that would certainly help. With Romney being the top of the ticket, though, we should expect a revivial of the class warfare of the Occupy movement, lots of accusations of paying 'fair shares', and idiotic lectures about 'the rich'. Don't buy any of it, and don't fall prey to it. Most of all, don't allow other people to get away with talking about it unchallenged - the facts are on our side, they've only got propaganda.
Who knows? Barack Obama's record is so bad, and the economic condition of this country is in such trouble that people may kick him out regardless of who goes up against him. Time will tell.
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