While Santorum's Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, called for a new policy, Santorum stuck with the president, and with the war. He even made it his primary focus in the last days of the campaign. The voters clobbered him for it. In Pennsylvania exit polls, 61 percent of voters said they disapproved of the war. Santorum lost among them, 15 percent to Casey's 85 percent. Among the largest subgroup of war opponents, the 42 percent of voters who said they strongly disapproved of the war, Santorum was routed 93 percent to 7 percent.
That by itself was enough to doom any hopes for a third term. Santorum didn't lose just because of the war. The economy was also an issue in Pennsylvania in , and Santorum lost 66 percent to 34 percent among voters to whom the economy was a critical issue. Santorum even ran disappointingly on values issues, his usual strength, splitting the vote among those who said values were extremely important.
I would imagine a national endorsement would come up at that time. Clearly the goal is to beat Barack Obama and anything Rick can do to facilitate that, Rick will do. Tuesday's speech represented a full-circle moment for the presidential hopeful.
He delivered his remarks from the Thaddeus Stevens conference room at the Gettysburg Hotel - across the hall from the Grand Ballroom where he spent the Illinois primary night exactly three weeks ago. In an e-mail to Santorum's traveling press corps just before the former senator began speaking Tuesday afternoon, press secretary Alice Stewart, a veteran of Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign who switched to Santorum's, said that just minutes earlier the candidate held a conference call with the entire staff to inform them of his decision.
Santorum's wife Karen also joined the call and she thanked everyone from the bottom of her heart for all their hard work, Stewart said. All rights reserved. His choice to end his bid exactly two weeks to the day before the April 24 Pennsylvania primary came down two major considerations: First, the Santorum campaign came to terms with the fact that Texas was never going to become a winner-take-all primary, likely denying them a huge treasure chest of more than delegates they hoped would help narrow the gap with Romney on the delegate scoreboard.
He said that he misspoke. Santorum added, "I would never, and you know, people have said, 'Oh, I'm trying to dismiss what we did to the Native Americans.
The way we treated Native Americans was horrific. It goes against every bone and everything I've ever fought for, as a leader, in the Congress. However, he did not apologize for his remarks in the speech. A staunch social conservative with a penchant for sleeveless sweaters, Santorum was the underdog who clawed his way to near the top of the Republican race and won the first nominating contest in Iowa by a thread.
His rise forced the issues of birth control and the role of Christianity in public life to the forefront of the campaign, frustrating Romney, a former private equity executive who sought to keep the focus on the economy.
Related Coverage. On Santorum, Romney said the news about his rival was unexpected. He added that Santorum has been an important voice and will continue to play a major role in the Republican Party. Santorum proved to be a more formidable opponent to Romney than many expected, especially in light of a historic percentage point defeat during his Senate re-election bid in Pennsylvania in
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