Rick Santorum drops out of the Republican primary race
Without a doubt the biggest political story of the day was Rick Santorum’s announcement that he is suspending his campaign and will no longer be seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States. For all intents and purposes this race has probably been over for quite some time, but reality set in within the last week or two that Mitt Romney was going to be the Republican nominee. The writing has been on the wall, and while Newt Gingrich remains in the race he is talking as if he has already dropped out and Dr. Paul is nowhere to be seen. Rick Santorum was the only viable option to Mitt Romney and his announcement today removes any remaining doubt about Mitt Romney’s ascension to the GOP throne.
I believe there were three reasons for Rick Santorum’s decision; internal Pennsylvania polling, the health af his youngest daughter–Bella–and money. Mitt Romney has been gaining on Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania and anything less than a convincing win in his home state would have been portrayed as a loss, and that is an embarrassment that Santorum probably decided to avoid in order to remain a Republican player in the future.
But in the end I think that was the lesser of the three reasons for Rick Santorum’s decision. Rick Santorum is a family man and the health of Bella had to be taking its toll on him as he canvassed the country seeking votes and in the end he put his family above his political aspirations and for that I give him all the credit in the world. I wish he and his family nothing but the best as they struggle through Bella’s sickness.
Rick Santorum also realized he could not compete monetarily with Mitt Romney; Mitt Romney was the best candidate that money could buy and he used that money to buy himself what he has always thought was rightfully his by attacking and destroying anyone who got in his way. There was nothing that anyone could do to stop the GOP’s chosen one from winning the nomination and Rick Santorum has now come to that conclusion also.
Rick Santorum ran an incredible race, never listening to those who said he had no chance and refusing to give up as he fought his way to an upset in Iowa and eventually to wins in 11 states. He made it farther than anyone ever gave him a chance because he has shown us that he is a fighter who will not back down in the face of a challenge.
Admittedly from a distance, I see quite a bit of Rick Santorum in Bella–she is a strong little girl and a fighter and I have to believe she has inherited these traits from her father, and from the values that he and his wife have instilled in their children.
So now the race moves forward and the Republicans have chosen the man who during one of the debates admitted that there were plenty of reasons not to vote for him. It is now going to be up to Mitt Romney to prove to the voters that there are enough reasons to vote for him and, in my opinion, simply not being Barack Obama is not enough of a reason to convince me to vote for him. If the choices are between a man who will steer us to the cliff at a high rate of speed and drive us over the edge, or chosing a man who will steer us to the brink of the cliff before we teeter off the edge, that isn’t much of a choice at all because the end result is the same. When a Mitt Romney campaign staffer compared Mitt Romney to an etch-a-sketch Mitt Romney defended himself by saying he was RUNNING as a conservative. That is interesting because he didn’t say he WAS a conservative, only that he was RUNNING as one. That should give us all pause and make us wonder if Mitt Romney will be enough of a change from Barack Obama to make a real difference.
As we now turn our attention to the general election the biggest question moving forward is; who will Mitt Romney chose as his VP candidate? While we keep hearing the names Susana Martinez and the DREAM Act supporting Marco Rubio, I think Mitt Romney needs to chose someone as his running mate who is the same type of fighter that Rick Santorum showed us he was. In my opinion there is only one person out there who will take the fight to the Obama campaign and that man is Allen West.
America's Watchtower 
Santorum decided he needed to spend more quality time with farm animals.
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Welcome back Ben, I wish you wouldn’t stay away for extended periods because I always enjoy your thought provoking and insightful commentary. For some reason by mentioning farm animals your comment was caught in my spam filter, but because I believe in free speech and do not believe in censorship I have decided to approve it so that everyone can see exactly what you bring to the table.
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I pray for little Bella and I wish Rick Santorum well. He won my respect and that wasn’t easy. I am so tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. If Allen West is the VP candidate it would make it easier to support Romney. I am desperate to get Obama out of office so I will once again gave to hold my nose this November.
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I couldn’t agree more Jim, He earned my respect as well. I too am tired of not being offered a candidate I can fully support but if West were to get the VP slot I would at least be excited about voting for West.
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West has been a government worker his entire life. We need someone with real life experience and intelligence, neither of which West has. He’s nothing but an “uncle Tom” who hates America.
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Real world experience and Uncle Tom? I didn’t have you pegged as a Romney supporter or a racist.
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I suspect you are right, Steve. Rick Santorum may realize the writing is on the wall, but he is probabl thinking more about Bella than anything else. He doesn’t give up easily.
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I think Bella was probably the biggest reason why he dropped out as well. He is a family man and he showed it in his speech today.
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I understand his priorities are with his family, but at the same time, this may have been a smart move for Rick. Had he lost Pennsylvania-his career may have been over. He now lives another day and will be back as a top tier Republican. I suspect you haven’t heard the last of Rick Santorum.
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I agree, if he wanted to remain a player moving forward he couldn’t have afforded a loss in his homestate so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was part of the reason for his decision.
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You’re absolutely right, rjjrdq.
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No doubt that Rick Santorum is a good man who cares deeply for his family. He stands by his principles and I respect that even though I disagree with him a many fronts. My thoughts and prayer go out to him and his family.
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True, he does stand for his principles, which are the principles of rats. My sympathies go out to his children.
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Oh, I wouldn’t say rats . . . but it became very clear during the campaign that Santorum, for all his blather about conservatism and the associated concept of small government performing only those necessary functions individuals cannot do efficiently on their own, is also very comfortable with the concept of using the power of government to impose his moral values on others.
We all are sinners and have come short of God’s glory, and the idea that any politician should claim the authority to impose moral strictures on us simply because he might be less sinful is repugnant.
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I do believe that Santorum went too far with what appears to be his willingness to impose his values on others TGY, and in the end that had quite a bit to do with him not being able to make a real run at the nomination.
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Thing is, the timing of his “suspending” his campaign (what’s that mean, anyway?) is suspect. Lots of people are saying he saw the writing on the wall, that he wouldn’t win Pennsylvania, and that pretty much would have ended his political career. That makes it look as if his reason was very cynical – he didn’t want to kill his chances of being a player in the future.
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If I am not mistaken, if a candidate suspends his campaign he can still raise money to help pay down his debt but I am not sure if that is true. I do think that part of the reason he dropped out is because he saw he might lose his homestate and he wanted to have a voice in the future, I don’t think that makes him cynical however.
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I didn’t agree with him on every issue either John, but it is rare that a man makes a stand on principles anymore and it was a refreshing change een though it did alienate some voters.
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Steve, it didn’t bother me so much that Santorum had some strong beliefs, and it didn’t bother me that he shared them, even though not all were consistent with my outlook. What bothered me was his obvious willingness to use the power of the Presidency, if attained, to promote those beliefs.
For example, when discussing his view on contraception, he said that he would use the Presidency to point out what’s wrong with it, which we all know now is that it permits people to do things they shouldn’t – like have sex for pleasure without concern for the possibility of pregnancy, and without concern about the transmission of some dread disease or other.
The problem is that I don’t think it would be long at all before President Santorum was working with members of his party in the Congress to transform those promotional messages into legislation.
I think, in the final analysis, Santorum is a secret democrat, small “d.” I honestly believe that he feels that since 85% of our nation is (self-described) Christian, they should be able to use the power of government to codify their beliefs into legislation regulating the personal behavior of all Americans.
Finally, it’s fine to respect a candidate for having and expressing strong beliefs and principles, but I disagree with supporting a candidate for those reasons when it’s rather clear that if carried out, they’ll result in taking rights from you, or from your neighbor.
Take good care and may God bless us all.
TGY
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I understand your position TGY; I often complain about Obama lecturing the American people and at times Santorum indicated he would also lecture the American people and it did turn my off to him. I did have problems with Santorum but I respect the fact that he didn’t shy away from his beliefs when so many politicians are afraid to tell you what they actually stand for.
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The realist in me is saying that as in all things political self interest reigns supreme as in this decision. Santorum’s withdrawing was like not going to school because your granma’s sick. Any and all of these softball rinos would have put aside all other things and defer to sending this housing project denizen back to where he can only hurt those who love him. And with knowing the mortal danger this country is with an Obama second term none of them were willing to and in doing so succeeded in splintering even more an already “eat their own” republican party. The whole bunch with their core values, family values, etc etc deserve the gulag that the commies, soon to be in charge, will send them to. If morality was gun powder none of them could blow their nose. The moral thing to do, for all the candidates, was to do the right thing regardless of self sacrifice.
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Aw, Pete, you’re just sore because we didn’t need primaries this time around and so you didn’t get to watch us do that dance where everybody winds up getting tossed under the bus.
Don’t worry, there’ll be a hot primary season in 2016, and you’ll get to see Dems barbecuing each other pretty much on every street corner.
Until then, buck up – if we survived 8 years of George W Bush, we can survive pretty much anything. Not that I believe President Obama is bad for us . . . but you do. And I’m here to tell you everything will be okay.
Take good care, and may God bless us all!
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Wow, I fell so much better already. The specter of “Four more years” really depressed me at first but now I have it together so much that I stay away from guns, knives, ropes and open windows….where’s my medication?
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