Bye Rick, hello Nov.
Title match set for Mitt and Bam
Romney called Santorum “an able and worthy competitor. ... He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had battled with Santorum to be the conservative alternative to Romney, vowed to stay in the race — and quickly made an appeal to Santorum’s legions. The 275 delegates Santorum won are free, in most states, to choose a candidate to back. WASHINGTON — The inevitability is now the reality: Mitt vs. Bam for the White House.
Rick Santorum’s announcement Tuesday that he will stand down has cleared the way for Mitt Romney to declare victory — and launched the fall campaign with a vengeance.
“The fact is that this is the first day of the general election,” a top Romney confidant told the Daily News. “Not Labor Day, but today. It’s here.”
Like two heavyweight prizefighters disdainfully eying each other from respective corners, the Romney and Obama campaigns have ratcheted up their potshots in recent weeks. Predictably, President Obama’s handlers greeted Santorum’s demise by ignoring him — using the occasion instead to pummel Romney.
“It’s no surprise that Mitt Rom- Rick Santorum pulle pulled out of GOP pres presidential race Tues Tuesday, clearing way w for Mitt Rom Romney. ney finally was able to grind down his opponents under an avalanche of negative ads,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement. “The more the American people see of Mitt Romney, the less they like him and the less they trust him.”
Santorum bowed out of the GOP race — but not from the fight to unseat Obama. “This presidential race is over for me, (but) we are not done fighting,” the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said in a poignant valedictory in the Civil War battlefield town of Gettysburg, Pa.
Santorum said he is “suspending” his campaign, a legal status that allows him to end his quest but still raise cash to pay off campaign debt. He owes nearly $1 million, including $500,000 for media consulting and thousands more for telemarketing and online outreach.
The announcement came after Santorum’s daughter, Bella, who suffers from a rare and often fatal genetic condition, was released from a hospital Monday night after being admitted for treatment.
Santorum said he and his family made the difficult decision during a wrenching weekend, given Bella’s hospitalization. “Good Friday . . . was a bit of a passion play for us with our daughter,” he said, telling the crowd of supporters that Bella pulled through. “She is a fighter.”
After suffering a crushing defeat in his 2006 Senate reelection bid, Santorum came out of nowhere to mount an insurgent campaign against Romney that saw him pull off a razor-thin win in Iowa and do well in Southern states, but suffer key defeats in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.
“Against all odds, we won 11 states,” Santorum said. “Millions of voters. Millions of votes.
“Miracle after miracle,” he added. “This race was as improbable as any race you see for President. . . . It was a love affair for me.”
As his wife, Karen, blinked back tears, Santorum, who is beloved by many evangelicals, remembered some of the ordinary people, many with infirmities, who bucked up his spirits along the campaign trail.