Rick Santorum insisted he would stay in the presidential race straight through till the GOP convention in Tampa.
He said he would continue to carry the conservative banner no matter what.
And he said he would continue to challenge Romney and somehow find a way to win.
But today he dropped out of the race. Why?
Here are the three big reasons -- the three "M's" in the sudden Santorum sayonora:
1) Money. Santorum ran out of money. He certainly couldn't match Romney. He never even came close in that department. But now the disparity was so big that Rick simply could not compete. Romney proved too resourceful, too resilient and (in terms of campaign coffers) too rich. Eventually, Santorum could not afford to compete anymore.
2) Maneuverability. Santorum wants to keep his options open both for the near and far future. If he's to have any chance of being a candidate somewhere down the road or being considered maybe for a cabinet post or similar job (say, like an ambassadorship) he had to leave now before suffering a humiliating defeat in Pennsylvania and/or seeming like a spoilsport. He needed to find a way to remain reasonably respectable both within the party and beyond. This was no time to go down burning bridges. Santorum finally recognized that.
3) Momentum. Santorum lost momentum. He peaked with his hat trick victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. But instead of capitalizing on that, the undisciplined Santorum then went off message and got diverted with comments about pornography, contraceptives and puking when he read JFK's separation of church and state speech. He blew it and in the process he proved that he was not ready for prime time.
Once Mitt Romney passed the halfway mark in the delegate race the contest was effectively over.
Nonetheless, Santorum ran a remarkable race.
He deserves credit for daring, dexterity and sheer tenacity. He certainly kept the GOP's establishment on its toes. He gave them a helluva run.
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