I like Rick Santorum. I voted for him. I even donated to his campaign. I believe that he is a credible conservative who could provide a striking contrast to Barack Obama and who could resonate with blue-collar voters.
Santorum is a good person, but a good person must also recognize when he’s fighting because he has a chance to win and when he’s fighting just to be fighting.
The Santorum campaign is now unmistakably fighting just to be fighting.
It’s time for Santorum to suspend his campaign so that Republicans can focus on our most imperative mission for 2012—defeating Barack Obama and his destructive, irresponsible agenda and debt and dependency.
Whether the candidate we rally behind is Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum isn’t as important as ensuring that someone other than Barack Obama takes the oath of office in January 2013.
It is now obvious that Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination. Santorum’s campaign no longer has a path to victory. The official delegate count from the Republican National Committee, as reported by state parties, shows Romney with 573 delegates to Santorum’s 202 and Gingrich’s 132. Romney is more than halfway to the nomination, while Santorum—even by more generous calculations—doesn’t even have one-fourth of delegates needed to win.
A brokered convention is neither likely nor desirable because it gives the Obama Machine five more months to plot, scheme and attack the Republican nominee, while Republicans waste time and money fighting each other.
Republican primary voters have clearly selected Romney as the preferred candidate. Now all Republicans must work to be sure that Romney has every advantage we can give him to defeat Barack Obama.
Romney has prevailed because he&rsqou;s a very competent leader with a campaign organization that is far superior to those of his Republican rivals. That may not be immediately inspiring to some, but it demonstrates that Team Romney is capable of doing the heavy lifting necessary to prepare for even bigger battles ahead.
The question we must ask is why would Republicans want Romney to expend time, energy and valuable campaign resources against other Republicans at a time he’s now under full-scale assault from the Obama Machine.
Now is the time for honorable conservatives to put aside personal pique and remember that the next seven months are a battle for the future—a battle to save the American dream for our children and grandchildren.
In 2008, Romney’s conservative credentials caused Santorum to endorse him over John McCain as the best candidate to battle Obama. Although Santorum himself wasn’t a candidate in 2008, neither was his judgment clouded by the pressures and pride of his own candidacy.
Mitt Romney may not be Ronald Reagan—who is?—but he’s not Barack Obama, either—not by a long shot. Romney is committed to stopping runaway spending, restoring policies that create jobs and renew prosperity, and preserving America as a beacon of freedom to the world.
On those scores alone, he represents a stark contrast to Barack Obama and a leader we can rally behind.
