Free Republic

Column: Blame the Ohio governor if Donald Trump is the Republican nomineeWhen John Kasich departs this earthly vale of tears, he ought to donate his brain to science. It could teach us a lot about irrational thinking.The Ohio governor has won a single state: his own. He has 143 delegates. That puts him fourth in the count behind Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio—who is no longer a candidate.To win the nomination on the first ballot of the Republican convention, Kasich would have to win 138 percent of the remaining delegates. This is impossible. Even a politician should be...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rick Santorum is endorsing his one-time bitter rival Mitt Romney in a late-night e-mail to his supporters. Santorum on Monday urged his supporters to join him in working with the effective Republican nominee to deny President Barack Obama a second term.

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he ultimately suspended his campaign because it became too difficult to raise money, especially since the media had declared the race for the Republican nomination essentially over. But the former Pennsylvania senator said he didn't want to place blame in his decision to exit the race. "After Wisconsin it was very, very difficult to raise money but one of the reasons for that was the media narrative that the race is over," said Santorum in an interview with Fox News Santorum said at a point, nearly every question he received was about the...

If and when Barack Obama wins another four years in the White House, one of the first people he should invite over is Rick Santorum. That's because when the scholars chronicle the history of his 2012 race, it will be Mr. Santorum who will get credit for handing the victory to the Democrats. And if you don't believe it, just ask Mitt Romney. Without his buddy Santorum in the contest, Mr. Romney could have taken a more moderate path to the nomination and would not have been dragged so far to the right in order to compete for the ultra-conservatives...

Now that Rick Santorum is out of the race, what happens to his delegates? Santorum has 285 delegates, according to the latest ABC News delegate estimate, second to Mitt Romney’s 661... ...But some of those delegates were never really “his.” ABC estimates that 78 Santorum delegates, from his wins in states that don’t “award” their delegates – Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota, and North Dakota, would have been free to support any candidate at the Republican National Convention in Tampa... Another two of Santorum’s delegates were Republican National Committee superdelegates, who will attend the convention by virtue of their positions in the...

Awaiting press conference. "FOX NEWS CONFIRMS RICK SANTORUM TO SUSPEND CAMPAIGN"

I just heard on Fox News that Rick Santorum is suspending his race for President. He will be giving a news conference

FOX News Radio just said that Santorum is going to announce a halt to his campaign within the hour. A rally in Gettysburg is said to have been changed to a press conference.

Fox Confirms: Rick Santorum to suspend Presidential Campaign. Will post link and source when it hits Fox News Website.

[SNIP] ...For candidates such as Santorum and Gingrich, a loss would be highly public. When you’re the exciting new candidate, you’re likely to focus on the endless possibilities, and optimism rules the day. But when the polls turn against you, the fear of failure starts to weigh more heavily. Despite whatever they go on to do, the stigma of losing can be nearly impossible to shake. For example, a Los Angeles Times headline last summer read “Failed presidential candidate Al Gore attacks winning candidate Obama over his environment policies.” The story had nothing to do with campaigning, yet Gore was...

But the likely effects of Santorum’s current campaign are being misjudged. It is social conservatives, above all, who have the most to fear from his campaign, because it has done serious, if inadvertent, damage to their, and his, causes. It could yet do more.

For a while, it had seemed that Rick Santorum’s crabby days were behind him. Gone were the sarcastic potshots at reporters and peevish outbursts aimed at his political opponents. He had transformed into the Mr. Rogers of the presidential race: good-natured, self-deprecating and downright likable. But that nice-guy image has gone down the drain lately, with a series of provocative remarks and testy exchanges that have coincided with his slipping presidential fortunes. He may have hit a low point Sunday, when he uttered an expletive in response to a question from a New York Times reporter. Asked what he meant...

Talk among conservative activists gathered in East Pennsboro Twp. for the past two days might have started out local, but it turned national pretty quickly. Speaker after speaker at the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference that convened Friday and ended Saturday hammered home their common-held desire to oust President Barack Obama from the White House in November. And while many attendees reserved judgment on their choice for the April 24 Pennsylvania Republican primary, their reactions to the presidential candidates and surrogates in attendance spoke volumes. The gathering of Pennsylvania conservative activists warmly greeted native sons Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum but...

When To Start Watching: Polls will close for the Louisiana Republican primary at 8 p.m. CDT (9 p.m. EDT). Results will begin to come in around 8:30 p.m. CDT. What's At Stake: Twenty of the state's 46 delegates are up for grabs Saturday, divided proportionately among all candidates who receive more than 25 percent of the vote in the state. Louisiana hosts a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans may vote for the four candidates in the GOP contest.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s campaign is taking aim at rival Mitt Romney’s tenure at the helm of Bain Capital..... [SNIP] Back in January, when Perry and Gingrich were hitting the former Massachusetts governor hard on his Bain tenure, Santorum had told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “I hate to sit here and be a defender of Mitt Romney, but to me this is federal capitalism, and I have to say that this is an attack probably not warranted.” “Bain Capital, at least from the record I looked at, had a lot of success,” Santorum said at the time. “I mean they...

Santorum Says He Would Enforce US Obscenity Laws That Obama Ignores By NBC's Andrew Rafferty ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL -- Rick Santorum accused President Barack Obama of not enforcing the country's obscenity laws and said Friday that as chief executive he would crack down on illegal pornography. Santorum found himself answering pornography questions during a stop at an Italian restaurant here after the discovery of a statement posted in his campaign website in which he asserts that "America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography." Recent reporting has shed light on the letter in which the former Pennsylvania senator vowed...

Some conservative Republicans have called for Gingrich to drop out of the race on the assumption that conservative primary voters would then unite behind Santorum as the conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney. But Gallup data indicate that Gingrich voters would not be likely to coalesce behind Santorum, suggesting that factors other than candidate ideology may be attracting voters to Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney. Gallup can simulate Republican preferences without Gingrich in the race by removing Gingrich votes and reassigning them to his voters' second-choice candidate. The results of this procedure suggest that national GOP preferences would change little...

AUSTIN — Mitt Romney missed another chance Tuesday to diminish the importance of the May 29 presidential primary in Texas. Romney could have taken a big step toward the GOP nomination with victories in Mississippi and Alabama, but he finished third in each state behind Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. Those losses renewed questions about Romney’s support among the Republican base. Set aside for a moment the fact Romney has a solid delegate lead, stands to do better in non-Southern states and, thanks to voters in Hawaii and American Samoa, actually captured the most delegates Tuesday. Santorum’s victories solidified him...

Presidential candidate New Gingrich joins CBS "This Morning" host Charlie Rose to talk about the war in Afghanistan, his path to the presidential race and tangling President Obama with gas prices. (CBS News) (6 minute video at link.)

Newt Gingrich in the wake of two losses in deep South States is seeking a justification for remaining in the race. When challenged by Brett Baier, Gingrich was unable to name a single state that he could win. Indeed, after playing hard as a "Southern Candidate" Gingrich has lost three straight Southern States including two deep South States near his home state of Georgia, so it's hard to imagine Gingrich winning elsewhere. Still Gingrich claimed a role in the race. His argument for continuing is that he and Senator Rick Santorum are playing a "tag team" that is denying Romney...