Santorum Out

Rick Santorum has dropped out of the 2012 race for the Republican Presidential nomination, effectively handing the race to Mitt Romney, although neither Newt Gingrich nor Ron Paul have officially dropped out yet.

"We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting," he said.

A three year old daughter in the hospital this past week, and the near numerical impossible challenge Santorum faced to win the race outright, as opposed to in a brokered conventioon, pushed him to recognize the inevitable. The fact that Santorum was actually still running out of a desire to be President, rather than to advance an agenda knowing he had no chance of winning (Ron Paul), or out of insane delusions of grandeur (Newt Gingrich), probably also made it possible for Santorum to make the call that his fellow candidates have not yet made themselves.