Rick Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Republicans, Romney, Santorum
He had a good run, but he just couldn’t pull it off. No surprise there. The real surprise was that he lasted this long.
Santorum announced that he is suspending his campaign at an event in his home state of Pennsylvania — his first public appearance following the release of his daughter Bella from the hospital and after he took a break from the campaign trail for a long Easter weekend.“While this presidential race is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” he said from Gettysburg, Pa., flanked by his family.
The former senator thanked his supporters for what he called the campaign’s “improbable” success. But Santorum’s poll numbers were dropping ahead of Pennsylvania’s April 24 primary, with Romney throwing the full weight of his campaign into a push to win there.
As The Hill points out, Santorum didn’t want to suffer a loss in his home state of Pennsylvania, but you can bet if the poll numbers were different he’d be right there, tearing Romney a new one.
So with Newt done quite some time ago and Santorum wrapping it up, looks like the general election can start in earnest.
Still, do you think Santorum’s and Newt’s attacks will hurt Romney in the general? I can’t help but think the answer is “yes.” So many soundbites! Hillary wasn’t nearly as caustic as the Republican also-rans were. Mainly because she probably thought she was going to win it and wanted to seem presidential. Newt and Santorum knew that they could only win if Romney really tripped up.
Buckle your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for the GOP this year.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 and is filed under Republicans, Romney, Santorum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 10th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
I’m a little confused. Is your hypothesis that there’s some set of voters who might have wanted to vote for Romney, but will change their minds about that because of a Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum soundbite? Soundbites that, by the way, all suggest Romney isn’t conservative enough?
That just doesn’t make any sense to me. Start getting tired of the following point: every re-election campaign is a referendum on the sitting President.
That means, for one, that Romney has conservatives locked up. Think what you want, but who really believes any conservatives will stay home when that betters Barack Obama’s reelection chances? Pretty silly if you ask me. Or maybe wishful/
That leaves independents. And it leaves them asking “if Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum think Mitt Romney isn’t conservative enough, do I like Romney more or less due to that?”
Or it leaves them asking “should I vote for Barack Obama because Gingrich and Santorum don’t like Mitt Romney?” Either way, I don’t see it. Gingrich and Santorum are passing from the stage, and that concludes their involvement unless the media prolongs it. If Gingrich and Santorum are challenged by the media because they start plumping Romney, do you think either will have trouble being straightforward and saying “Yeah, I thought I’d have made a better President than Mitt. I think everyone understands that. And I think everyone understands that Mitt would be a much better President than Barack Obama.”
Bottom line: it’s just NOT going to be hard to spin. Conservatives will unite against Obama, and most every voter will choose based on whether they think Obama deserves another 4 years.
April 10th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Does this mean you want your blog back?
Dude. You really need to work on that selective memory. This is what you were saying at the time (including a nice selection of bitter links):
Yes. “Let’s not forget” what you were thinking at the time.
Then, even after Obama finally got the nomination, you were still pissed and insisted an apology was necessary from the Clintons. Even with that you said might not vote for Obama if he put Clinton on the ticket:
Anyway. To your main point – If by “It’s going to be a bumpy ride for the GOP this year.” you mean that Obama is like to win reelection, I agree. Betting against the reelection of a sitting President is a sucker bet. They almost have to try to lose.
But it is likely to be closer than you think. Expectations for Obama are high. Expectations for Romney are low. That sets up well for Romney to exceed expectations.
Another thing that you may not recall, is that Obama is really not that good in debates. He mostly lost to Hillary, and marginally bested McCain. Romney has been honed at debating through this process, much like Obama was in the campaign against Clinton. Obama is out of practice. That first debate could be quite a surprise.
As far as the rest of the “bumpy road”, the GOP are a lock to retain the majority in the House, and will close the gap in the Senate. It is a coin flip whether they also take the Senate. Intrade gives them the edge.
April 11th, 2012 at 10:51 am
It’s interesting that you don’t mention Ron Paul…I believe he’s still in the race.
But I guess I can’t blame you for ignoring him just like pretty much everybody else. After all, who wants someone that might actually change how the government works? it is much better to keep the illusion of change rather than to actually have it.
April 11th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
CC: I largely agree, although I think enthusiasm does have an important role to play in turnout, and voters who believed their candidate’s rhetoric in the primary will be less enthused about their opponents, even though they do like them better than Obama.
April 13th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
@mw, no not Hillary herself. All of the above was done by surrogates, although Bill’s “fairy tale” comment was certainly borderline since people found it hard to distinguish between Hillary and Bill.
Still, I’m talking about caustic to the degree that it can be used against Romney. When you have Santorum and Gingrich suggesting that Romney isn’t even a real conservative, there’s a ton of stuff that the left can use from those soundbites in commercials to harm Romney. Very little of what Hillary said was ultimately used against Obama. But hey, think what you will. You’re still convinced Palin was treated unfairly by the media.
Last, why must you always snipe at me for not posting enough? Newsflash, over the past 7 years I’ve written 6,583 posts. You’ve written 177.
Also, and as I’ve said, I’m busy. In the last three months I have been…
Shooting stuff like this: http://youtu.be/bXJ-i_NEiUE
And this: http://youtu.be/h_Mddp_gSN0
Raising money for this: http://kck.st/xQG672
Doing strategy and social media for this: http://2012.kcfilmfest.org/
Prepping my next film: https://www.facebook.com/DeathsDanceCard
About to raise money for this: https://www.facebook.com/CinemaKC
Launching this: http://kcfilm.com/altmangrants
So, respectfully, give me a break. I’m busy pursuing my dreams.
April 14th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
@ Justin, I’m just bitter that you have not cast me in any of your movies.