Legally I believe he has to say “suspending” rather than “ending” his campaign or else he loses his delegates. And while Romney now will be the nominee, conservative delegates can at least push for a better conservative GOP party plank. Not much, but better than nothing.
His delegate status should be respective of party rules, not laws and legal status.
In the past when a candidate got out of the race they "ended" the compaign. Now we've apparently invented yet another reason to say one thing but mean another. Which means there is no SPECIFIC meaning to anything Santorum just did or said and there in lies the problem. Is he in or is he out? Well that depends, can't be the answer if we are going to communicate.
When we learned the words "see spot run" it meant...."see spot run". We didn't read aloud "see spot run" then turn to Robert Shapiro and whisper "what does that really mean?".
Bottom line:
Rick Santorum was not truthful when he stated he was "suspending" his campaign.
Anyway he is out and we MUST get behind Mitt!