Santorum's Out, Now What?

Tuesday, Senator Rick Santorum "suspended his Presidential campaign." (Real world translation: Ended campaign in all but name so he can raise money still to pay off debt.) Two questions come from his news.  One, why did Santorum withdrawal? Two, more importantly, now what?

Let's try to conject about the reasons for Senator Santorum's withdrawal first, shall we?  There are two likely reasons for this drop out, and I do not see any other real potentials. One, and this is most likely, the Santorum Campaign has run out of money. This is pretty much the only reason why candidates drop out of races. It likely explains why Newt Gingrich has outlasted Santorum...he's still got cash in the coffers.   The second potential is the one that I hope is NOT the case: little Bella Santorum's health is worse than publicly known.  If this is the case, I shan't dwell on it save to say I hope that's not the issue.

Either way, the Senator's Presidential campaign is over. Conservative reactions can be broken into three camps: The Bridge Jumpers, the DelusiNewts, and the Live Withs.

For the record, I'm a Live With.  I can live with Mitt Romney as our nominee, as I've said so many times. I can live with Mittens with more ease than I put up with John McCain four years ago, because Romney is certainly more conservative than John McCain. McCain is a genuine fence sitter RINO.  Romney is definitely about 15 degrees right of center. (I would say that Santorum is about 50 degrees right of center, Newt is about 65 degrees right of center, and Ron Paul is about 85 degrees above the clouds in Happy Imagination Land.)

The Bridge Jumpers are the polar opposite of the Live Withs. They believe that Santorum was Reagan Part II, that Romney is Gerald Ford Part II, who believe deep down in the depths of their hearts that a Romney nomination will equal an Obama re-election. (As if Obama was somehow a strong candidate if we run only a modestly conservative candiate?)  These people are lining up at the Brooklyn Bridge to jump off it.  (They're intermingling with my fellow Mets fans, by the way).

Then there are the DelusiNewts. These are the people who have spent the past few months calling for Santorum to get out of the race to pave the way for Newt. (Ignoring the silliness of saying "Hey guy in close second place, get out of the distant third place guy's way!)  The DelusiNewts are now throwing a party, believing that Santorum's exit will pave the way for Gingrich's big second coming to ultimately win the 90% of the remaining votes to beat Mittens. (I think you have a better chance of seeing my aforementioned New York Mets shocking the world and winning the World Series.)

I know, some of you are waiting for an answer to the "now what?" question.  Here it is, friends: Be rational, and join us me as a Live With.

I'll be taking time in the coming days to explain in greater detail why I can live with Mitt, and why, above all else, we must defeat Barack Obama. The thing that would be the biggest travesty to hit America in 2012 would not be a Romney Administration.  It would be a second Obama Administration.  Maybe Romney would just be a stop gap, but you know what? I'll take a stop gap! (Especially knowing that Mitt will absolutely have to choose a Vice President like Paul Ryan or...genuine shivers of excitement...Marco Rubio; because that VP will likely be the next Republican nominee after Romney.)

Either way, friends, I am confident that, in the likely event we nominate Romney, we will be looking at President Romney. And I can live with that.