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April 11th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By
Toby Harnden
16:49 EST, 10 April 2012
|
02:55 EST, 11 April 2012
Rick Santorum has bowed to reality by suspending his long-shot presidential bid. He had no hope of overhauling Mitt Romney’s delegate lead and the general election campaign against President Barack Obama had effectively already begun.
In dropping out, Santorum avoided the very real prospect of losing his home state of Pennsylvania, a loss which, combined with his 18-point Senate re-election loss there in 2006, would have been devastating to his future national prospects.
Having won 11 states, Santorum had the opportunity to withdraw graciously, congratulate Mitt Romney – now his party’s presumptive nominee – and call for Republican unity in working to defeat President Barack Obama in November.
Dropping out: Surrounded by his family, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum announced on Tuesday that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential candidacy
A full endorsement was not necessary – Hillary Clinton did not immediately back Obama in 2008 – but an acknowledgement that romney was the victor would have been an important first step towards party healing after a bruising primary battle.
Instead, Santorum blew it. His rambling 14-minute speech in Gettysburg, site of the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, barely mentioned Obama or the economy. And most notably there were two words that did not cross his lips – Mitt and Romney.
At one point, Santorum emphasised how important it was “that we win the House back and that we take the United States Senate”, omitting the number one aspiration of Republicans across America – taking back the White House from Obama.
Santorum probably hasn’t damaged Romney with his graceless speech today – but he has damaged himself. Having run a highly commendable race on a shoestring, he had an opportunity to lift himself straight away into the top ranks of his party’s leadership with real prospects of victory in 2016 (if Romney loses in November) or even 2020.
But by making the speech all about him, rather than his country or his party, Santorum ended up looking like the smaller man.
Ending a presidential run is a difficult, painful process. Like dealing with grief, there are different stages. It would have seemed odd for Santorum to have been lavishing praise on Romney today, barely a fortnight after he suggested Obama might be preferable. So Romney will doubtless cut his vanquished rival some slack.
His failure even to acknowledge Romney, however, was an error that he will need to remedy.
The model for how Santorum needs to behave is, ironically enough, Mitt Romney. In 2008, there had been bad blood between Romney and John McCain. But when Romney dropped out, he not only endorsed his rival a week later but went to work for him.
That act put Romney on McCain’s vice-presidential shortlist. It also ensured that this time around McCain endorsed Romney early and returned the favour by campaigning for him across the country.
Santorum leaves the Republican race a much more important figure in the conservative movement than he was previously. Having been through a process that tends to diminish candidates rather than build them up, that was no mean feat.
Whether he can emerge in the wake of a Romney defeat in 2012 or 2016, or at the end of a two-term Romney presidency in 2020, as a unifying Republican figure remains to be seen. If he is to lay the foundations for achieving that, he will need to make his peace with Romney publicly – and quickly.
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Instead of talking about Romney, Santorum took the time to update everyone about his daughter and to thank them for their prayers and concerns and your are criticizing him? Please!!!!!!!!!!!
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Toby has been rooting for Romney ever since he started this Daily Mail gig, it is a very strange way to report a U.S. Presidential Campaign to a foreign country, taking sides with one of The Candidates. Please don’t tell me that Toby, will be The DM’s main source of campaign news, when the real thing begins in The Summer.
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