Rick Santorum Ends Presidential Bid

The candidate is always the last to know when to pack it in. The rest of us figured it out months ago. We knew it had to be dawning on Rick Santorum after he declared less than 24 hours before announcing the suspension of his campaign that he was not going to quit. such a loud declaration in the face of long odds is a clear sign a candidate is about to do just that.

I have kept away from commenting on the Republican nomination race because the only thing I had to say was probably dangerous--I am warming up to Mitt Romney. At the very least, I am not upset to wave the white flag.

Much of my Romney acceptance has to do with with the lackluster alternates. Sure, Santorum and Newt Gingrich had no shot at winning the nomination since around the end of February. But I am Southern, and therefore a sucker for lost causes. I would have gone all the way to Tampa with either one of them and hoped for chaos to ensue if either one stirred any excitement in me. But gingrich is a weirdo and santorum is too thin skinned and obsessed with social issues during the worst economic times since the Great Depression. In any other election cycle, maybe.

I may like to indulge the tiny, wounded idealist in me by embracing the occasional lost cause, but the cynic in me is an overwhelming presence who likes to take the puny idealist and slam him up against the wall on a regular basis. There are two kinds of GOP presidential candidates--legacy candidates and moderates. Romney is both. Why anyone seriously thought he was not going to be the eventual nominee looks silly in hindsight. Who else would could it have been?

The most important thing in November is getting rid of Barack Obama before he succeeds socializing the United states economically and Balkanizing the United States socially. Then we can worry about holding Romney’s feet to the fire. There are a couple points in our favor. One, all Romney wants to do is be president. He does not come in with an agenda, just a huge ego. If he truly has no principles, conservatives can yank him in the direction we want him to go if we finally develop the nerve to do so. We got Sanuel alito appointed to the Supreme Court instead of Harriett Miers, so forcing a Republican president to be a conservative can be done. Two, Romney is far more even tempered than John McCain and less stubborn than Bob Dole. I imagine conservatives will have an easier time convincing him to go to the right than we would have the last two losing repuvlican candidates.

Whatever the case, this is what we now have to work with. Dig in for trench warfare from now until November. I, for one, do not intended to let this election slip way like 2008.