The Real Reasons Why Santorum Pulled Out

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.

Romney Wins Three Races - Sweeps Past Opponents

Mitt Romney garnered three more big primary wins tonight: Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
These were significant wins and they push Romney past the halfway point on the road to the GOP presidential nomination.
Here are the delegate totals now:
ROMNEY - 646 delegates (56%)
Santorum - 272 (23%)
Gingrich - 135 (12%)
Paul - 51 (4%)
Numbers don't lie.
Mitt Romney is far and away the choice of Republicans. He is now the presumed GOP nominee.

Bush, Ryan, Rubio Aim To Shut Down Santorum

The Miami Herald is our with a story that says that Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan all endorsed Mitt Romney last week because they want to stop Rick Santorum. They're worried that Santorum will destroy the Republican Party before his campaign comes to an end -- that Santorum may wind up being the best thing that ever happened to Obama.
Here's an excerpt:

Marco Rubio sounds worried. So do Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan. Their candidate, Mitt Romney, is losing to President Barack Obama. The GOP primary is becoming “counterproductive.” So when the three Republicans endorsed Romney over the past two weeks, it wasn’t so much about jockeying for a vice-presidential slot on Romney’s ticket. Their underlying goal was more fundamental: Stop the primary.

Click here to read the full story.

Romney Edges Closer and Closer To Nomination

Though the news reports say that Rick Santorum has "won" the Louisianna presidential primary Santorum has only captured 10 of the 20 Louisianna delegates. Mitt Romney won five of the delegates. That means that Romney's delegate total is now 568.
That puts Romney far, far ahead of Santorum in total delegates: 568 to 273.
Remember, 1,144 delegates are needed to secure the GOP nomination.
Once Romney picks up just five more delegates he will be over the halfway mark to the nomination. That will mean that no other candidate (or combination of candidates) will be able to surpass him in the delegate count no matter what.
It is highly unlikjely at this point that anyone will even come close to surpassing Romney.
Which means that's it's basically all over but the shouting.
Mitt Romney is overwhelming, odds-on favorite to capture the nomination.
He will shortly reach 573 at the pieces will all begin to fall into place.

Romney Continues To Enjoy GOP Voter, Delegate Edge

From Mitt Romney Central:

Thirty contests have been held so far this primary season.
Of those contests Romney has won 19 of them. Romney has accrued more than 1.2 million votes beyond Santorum’s tally. But I think an under-discussed fact about this race is that Romney has won delegates in every single contest that has taken place. Compare that to 11 goose eggs for Santorum and 17 for Gingrich. When Santorum talks about “competing everywhere there are delegates” he doesn’t mention that he’s not even on the ballot in DC, just as he missed the VA due to campaign ineptitude. And when Santorum says “We are going to win this nomination before that convention,” he is… well…. lying.
Santorum’s faint hope of winning lies in a contested convention by attempting to deny Romney the full slate of delegates he needs to clinch. A majority of Republicans are not going to like the prospect of a brokered convention and the calls for Santorum to withdraw will grow louder and louder. Should he ignore those calls and succeed in pushing the election to convention he will be a very unpopular man.

Click here to read more.

Why Romney Has The Edge In Pennsylvania Primary

There's a great story in The Daily from Dan Hirshrschhorn that details the problems that Rick Santorum is facing in his home state of Pennsylvania as that state's April 24 primary nears.
The fact is that the Pennsylvania GOP presidential primary is a mere beauty contest. The winner of the popular vote in the primary isn't guaranteed a single delegate. Not one.
So even if Santorum wins the primary (and there's no assurance of that), the odds in Pennsylvania right now indicate that Romney will nonetheless pick up the lion's share of delegates. Why? Because the delegate slots in the state will most likely be filled by party professionals and insiders -- people who are leaning toward Romney.
Popular former Governor Tom Ridge has already endorse Romney. Former state GOP Chair Alan Novak is for Romney. Several PA. members of Congress have lined up behind Romney. And the list goes on.
Here's an excerpt from the Hirschhorn story:

Traditionally, state Republican leadership has exercised enormous sway in getting its own members and supporters elected to delegate slots.
Interviews with about two dozen Pennsylvania Republicans and a review of the delegate candidates brings Santorum’s challenge into focus.
The ranks of delegate hopefuls are littered with Republican state committee members, elected officials and others with close party ties, who will ultimately be more beholden to a state party leadership that, while officially neutral, is visibly leaning in Romney’s direction and increasingly vocal in its fear that Santorum could hurt the party in a general election — especially after witnessing his 18-point drubbing in 2006.
Romney, Ron Paul and even Newt Gingrich got some of their supporters on the ballot as delegate candidates. But Santorum’s campaign officials, who have struggled with ballot organization issues across the country, privately concede that they just didn’t have the time, nor resources, to organize their own supporters to run as delegates when the paperwork was due earlier this year.

Click here to read the whole story.

Delegate Count Weighed In Romney's Favor

Jenifer Rubin at Commentary has a good analysis of what happened in the primary last night and the prospects for Romney and Santorum going forward. Rubin has really paid attention to the numbers and what they mean -- which is what the rest of the media should be doing.

Here's an excerpt:

Romney has 495. He needs 694 delegates, less than 48 percent of the remaining delegates, to wrap it up. That’s not “just” math; that’s the reality of the nominating process. . . .
Being the most conservative candidate who can win among the most conservative voters in the most conservative states does not get you the nomination.
The trajectory of the race can change only if Santorum improbably can take winner take-all states such as New Jersey and Wisconsin and start winning the lion’s share of the votes in states where he is badly trailing (e.g. New York).

Click here for the entire column.

Primaries: Romney Wins Delegate Count Once Again

DON'T BE FOOLED: In the all-important delegate hunt last night, Romney was once again the winner. By the latest count Romney picked up at least 40 delegates while Santorum only picked up 34. 

Romney now has nearly 45% of the delegates needed to win. Once he passes 50% (and that is virtually inevitable) the race is effectively over. 

Santorum needs to win at least two-thirds of all remaining delegate battles to have any chance. 

Very unlikely.

Poll: Romney Up, Up, Up . . . Obama Down, Down

Yeah, I know the polls have been all over the place this primary season.
But the latest Rasmussen Poll is eye-opening.
Just when you might have thought President Obama was on the comeback trail he seems to be slip-sliding away again.
Romney leads President Obama by five points in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. Today's numbers show Romney at 48%, Obama at 43%. That’s Romney’s largest lead since December.
It just proves what we've been saying all along: Romney has remarkable staying power He's an exceptionally resilient candidate. We think he has what it takes to go the distance.
And there's more:

• Right now only 25% of the electorate strongly approve of the job Obama is doing. With 44% disapproving, that gives Obama a negative job performance rating of -19% Not good.
• Nationally, in the race for the GOP nomination Romney now leads Santorum by 12 points.
• Incredibly, Romney's even gaining a foothold in the race for delegates in the south, leading by eight points in Mississippi and tied with Santorum and Gingrich in Alabama.
• A whopping 80% of GOP voters now expect Romney to be their nominee.

Romney Surges Nationwide As GOP Closes Ranks

The numbers are in from the latest Rasmussen poll and they're not good for Rick Santorum.
Mitt Romney has now surged to a double-digit lead nationwide.
The poll taken within hours of Tuesday’s results in Michigan and Arizona gave the former Massachusetts governor a 16-point lead over Santorum among likely Republican primary voters nationwide, his biggest lead so far in the protracted contest.
Republicans are beginning to rally around Romney.
Both former White House senior adviser Karl Rove and influential Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin came out to say that Romney now has an almost unshakable lock on the nomination.
Of course, Ohio will be a key test. But even there Romney has closed a huge gap and appears to be in a good position.
The tipping point may be upon us and all signs are looking good for Mitt Romney.
Why? Because Republicans want to win. They want a real leader. And more and more they're seeing Santorum as a lightweight, a whiner and a spoil sport.
Romney is a proven leader. He has staying power. And he's the only one who can defeat Obama.

How 'Stop Romney' Dems Hide Behind Santorum

The Votes Tell The Story: It's Romney!

Numbers don't lie.
And when it comes to the GOP presidential nomination, the numbers tell the story.
In this case, the numbers are the vote totals.
Consider this: Last night in Arizona and Michigan respectively Mitt Romney tallied more votes than he did four years ago.
And overall Romney has gathered far more votes than any other candidate.
Here's more:

• Romney has now tallied nearly two million votes.
• Romney leads his nearest rival by nearly three-quarter-million votes.
• Romney is the only GOP candidate to have reached and surpassed one million votes.
• Romney has won more popular votes than Santorum and Gingrich combined.
• Romney has gathered almost as many votes as Santorum, Gingrich and Paul combined.
• Romney has won in the north, the south, the midwest and the west -- every part of the country.

These are the irrefutable facts.

Here then are the vote totals:
ROMNEY: 1,749,111
Santorum:  978,042*
Gingrich:  932,222
Paul: 462,912
*Note that for all the hoopla surrounding Santorum, he barely edges out Gingrich.

All over the nation republicans have spoken. they're message is strong, clear and simple: ROMNEY!

Reality Check: Ad Claims About Santorum Are True

The Presidency: No More Washington Duplicity!

Video: How Santorum 'Took One For The Team'

This is a profile in courage? Nice try . . . . .

Video: Santorum And The Spectre Of Specter

He supported liberal Arlen Specter -- twice!
He trusted Republican turncoat Arlen Specter again and again.
He praised Specter and proudly embraced him.
He even voted with Specter for a liberal Supreme Court nominee who now sits on the high court.
And he refused to stand up to Big Labor -- just like Specter.
Now, he's haunted by the spectre of Specter. And he has no one to blame but himself.

Poll: Romney gets Big Boost From GOP Debate

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of likely Republican Primary voters in Michigan shows Romney with 40% of the vote and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum with 34%. The poll was conducted on Thursday night, following the last scheduled debate among the GOP candidates.
This is a dramatic reversal from pre-debate polls that showed Romney faltering.
But Mitt's appears to have his mojo back.
RRRRRRRRomney!
Click here for more.

Is There A Romney/Paul Alliance? Santorum Gripes.

Is there a Romney/Paul alliance?
Ron Paul has already discussed this on the Scott Hennen radio show (above) and in news stories.
We've discussed it here as well.
The two men like and respect one another. And their families are friendly as well. They talk frequently and they share the same values. They're both strong family men and neither one is by nature accusatory or confrontational.
Well, anyway -- all this seems to irk Rick Santorum.
Santorum and his camp are now complaining that they're being ganged up on. They're suggesting that there's some collusion between Paul and Romney.
The whole notion is absurd, as the Romney camp has correctly pointed out.
Let's face it: Rick Santorum had a very, very bad night last night. He bombed. And now he's trying to find a scapegoat.
As Romney told Santorum during the debate last night: "Look in the mirror."
Santorum's the one who voted again and again to raise the debt lmit.
Santorum's the one who supposted countless earmarks.
Santorum's the one who cozied up to "Benedict Arnold" Specter.
Santorum's the one who argued that mainline Protestantism was falling prey to Satan.
Those were Santorum's words and actions. And he has no one to blame but himself for the fallout.

Santorum Warned That 'Satan' Is Out To Destroy US

The Drudge Report is out today with a troubling report about Rick Santorumj.
It seems the former senator from Pennsylvania warned in 2008 how politics and government are falling to Satan.
Here's an excerpt from the report:

"Satan has his sights on the United States of America!" Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has declared.
"Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition."

Click here to read the whole story.

 

Mitt Romney's Long Haul Game Plan

Michelle Bachmann.
Rick Perry.
Herman Cain.
Newt Gingrich.
They came. They peaked. They fell.
Each tried to overtake Romney. And each failed. Yes, Gingrich is still in the race, but only barely.
Now Rick Santorum thinks he can overtake Romney by bashing the media, appealing to zealots on the right and saying things like "government should not run the public schools."
Well, there's a great article in The American Prospect that points out that Mitt Romney is in this race for the long haul. He's already fended off a quartet of challengers and almost-rans (like Sarah Palin, the supercilious sideline instigator) and he's proven that he knows how to keep his eye on the prize: the nomination and, eventually the presidency.
Here's an excerpt from the article:

Santorum’s platform is also troublesome, and his social-issues-heavy, economics-lite stump speeches may hit a wall when he challenges Romney is bigger and more moderate states. Although the Michigan primary on February 28 is being set up as a game changer, it won't be. Even if Santorum wins—and that's looking increasingly likely—the basic dynamics of the race will stay the same. While the rest of the candidates have dialed up the antics as though they were the cast of Jersey Shore, Romney is playing Survivor: Outwit, outplay, outlast. Once everyone else gets voted off the island, Romney thinks he will be the last one standing.

Click here to read the entire article.