Rick Santorum Done

Finally! I tell ya one thing: He seemed to be pretty committed to staying in for the longest time. I'm definitely surprised he decided to call it quits. I thought for sure he'd wait another two months or so. But to Mr. Santorum, here's a little song for us all to remember him by. Bye-bye, mister sweater vest guy You had passion for the fashion But your views were too pye Them Grand Old boys have to flop to survive We don't wanna go that far to the right You need compromise and a platform that's spry

I'm sad to see him go even though he would not have won the nomination--it's Romney's turn, it's pretty plain that the GOP made up its mind long ago about that. I wish we could take all 4 of those guys and combine them into one. I really don't like Romney all that much but, as we've said before, anyone but Obama! I'd like Paul's small government, Santorum's morality and solid family values, Gingrich's sharp mind and Romney's business experience all in one candidate. Too bad we can't build a candidate we all like and trust.

First of all, let me say I'm very glad Bella is doing better and is home from the hospital and I hope and pray she has nothing but good health from now on. I've never doubted that the Santorums are great parents. However, I'm not quite as sure as some here seem to be that he only dropped out of the campaign to be with Bella or because of her illness. I'm sorry, but I have a feeling the polling, especially that coming out of his and my home state of Pennsylvania, had a lot to do with it. He'd been depending on winning, hopefully even winning BIG in PA so as to totally erase, or maybe more appropriately "Etch-A-Sketch out" the embarrassing loss of his Senate reelection bid in 2006. At the time it was the largest margin any incumbent Senator had ever lost by, a whopping 18 points. He really shocked a lot of people by coming from out of nowhere to become one of the frontrunners for the GOP nomination so all he really needed for icing on the cake and to give people something to remember other than that terrible loss was a PA primary win. A loss, on the other hand, would put him right back to square one, so to speak, and since I have little doubt he intends to try it again in 2016 he wasn't about to allow that to happen. He's a politician; politicians are opportunists by nature; he saw the opportunity to bow out gracefully and he took it. I don't know if it could ever be possible for someone with his extreme right views to win the Republican nomination but I'm pretty sure he could never win the general election. He doesn't think birth control is "alright" and wouldn't have a problem if individual states wanted to outlaw it. He doesn't believe in the Separation of Church and State, in fact President Kennedy's speech about it made him want to "throw up". He DID believe he had the right to interfere in the Terri Schiavo case. He doesn't believe in a woman's right to an abortion, even if it's to save her own life despite the fact he admitted he'd have made that difficult call when he and his wife were nearly faced with that horrible choice. He's all for limiting people's right to sue for damages and pain and suffering, yet it was a different story when his wife sued a chiropractor and was awarded a quarter of a million dollars. He's vowed over and over again to repeal "Obamacare" yet when asked why his charitable donations were so low for his nearly million dollar annual income he explained how he had to pay for a lot of his daughter's medical bills out of his own pocket. Exactly how does he think those of us who don't make seven figures are supposed to handle huge medical expenses? Basically, he doesn't care. I think he might have been hearing some voices communicating back to him, some of which came from his own state, and they were saying "You don't speak for me!" Annie

This was the time for him to step out gracefully with an excuse that is valid and understandable. I hope that the support will coalesce around the presumptive nominee and we can see some movement in the polls. But sometimes I am not sure any of it matters.

Sadly we all knew he wouldn't make it to the top but am glad he decided to be a Dad over a president!

I live in Pennsylvania and in our area he had the vote in the bag, that said he was from this area as well. I will never condemn a man for putting his family above his career. I think if he ever does run again his stepping down to be a good father will lend him many a vote. No one on either side of the political line in the sand can say he quit for no good reason and I hope that his daughter understands how much he gave up for her love.