SANTORUM CALL IT QUITS, ROMNEY DEFACTO NOMINEE

I have been discussing the real possibility of a good old fashioned floor fight at the Republican Convention but alas that is not to be, as Rick Santorum suspended his Presidential campaign stating that though not running for President any longer would continue the fight to defeat Obama and restore our Nation.

Some speculation has it that Santorum's reasoning to suddenly suspend his campaign has much to do with the health of his daughter who has been in and out of the hospital due to problems she has had all of her young life which have caused her to be hospitalized several times in recent weeks.

As a result since there are no longer three, well four if you count the completely silent and no chance Ron Paul, there is little possibility that Romney will not get the nomination and carry the remaining states which have proportioned delegate counts. Voters will likely hit the Romney button on the ballot whether they favored him or not since he is now the defacto nominee.

The unfortunate situation for Republicans now is that the summer which would have belonged to them if the process had gone all the way to the Convention is that the Obama attack campaign and the lame stream media which has been favoring Romney will now combine to seek to destroy him as the obvious nominee. The press who have been in Romney's corner during the Primaries will now abandon him for their first love Barack Obama.

Speculation is all over the board as to who Romney will choose as his running mate ranging from Florida Senator Marco Rubio to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, both of which endorsed Romney. No matter who his running mate is Romney will out of necessity have to pick a well known strong conservative to get the GOP base which have had a very tepid support if any support at all of the more moderate Romney. A conservative will go a long way in bringing conservatives into the Romney camp and get the vote out in November.

It will not be advantageous for Romney to announce any running mate until the Convention since the announcement will be a major draw for audience numbers and will help him come out of the Convention with a head of steam going into the fall campaign cycle. If he announces before the Convention the viewership will be low and be a complete disaster for the Fall build up. So I hope he is smart enough to wait and not give into the pressure that is sure to come for him to announce in order to give the 24/7 news agencies a major story.

Additionally if there are ANY skeletons in his closet of any type NOW would be the time to let them out rather than hoping the Obama campaign will not discover anything as they dig through everything including the type of toilet tissue Romney uses. The earlier the better if anything exists in order to get it out and let is die BEFORE September.

So all the doubts and questions are over and it is time for the GOP to get behind though reluctantly for many of us and stand with the man who must defeat Barack Obama in November. While he has MANY shortcomings for especially conservatives I do agree with Sarah Palin and many others who have the rallying cry, "ABO, anybody but Obama!"

Ken Taylor