Santorum quits race, clears path for Romney

and had little hope of catching up to him, but his strong performance in a brutal nominating contest established him as a force that the party will probably have to reckon with this presidential election year and beyond.
His departure from the race created an anticlimactic moment in the long presidential primary season for Romney, who has been actively seeking his party’s nomination for five years and found his conservative credentials constantly in question by the durability of Santorum’s candidacy.
The move springs Romney from a political limbo in which he was acting like the nominee even though he faced the prospect of weeks of hard — and expensive-campaigning against Santorum.
Santorum told supporters his campaign was over but made it clear that any retreat from the political stage would be only temporary.
“We made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” Santorum said.
“This game is a long, long, long way from over,” he added.
Romney, appearing in Wilmington, Delaware, praised his former rival for having made “an important contribution to the political process.”
“This has been a good day for me,” Romney said.
“Senator Santorum has decided not to proceed with his campaign, and I had the chance to speak with him this morning. We exchanged our thoughts about going forward, and we both have a great deal of interest in seeing the country taken on a very different path.”
Santorum’s withdrawal cleared the way for Republicans to rally around Romney.
Conservative leaders praised Santorum’s decision and his campaign that brought their issues to the fore. But they raised doubts that Romney could convert their flock.
“I just think it’s going to be a much harder lift to take someone who seems like a moderate and try to get conservatives excited about it,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. — nytimes.com.