Santorum Bows Out « de oppresso liber

Well, it’s official. Yesterday, Rick Santorum suspended his campaign, citing his family.

So, the GOP field has narrowed a bit. We’re down to Gingrich, who’s checks are beginning to bounce; Romney, who’s business acumen might be good, but might be too toxic to most voters outside the establishment; and Ron Paul, who is quite possibly the most sane man left standing, but is too toxic to the establishment.

Yes, I’m biased towards Paul. Sue me.

Blake Oates speculates who will get Santorum’s delegates on Freedom Bunker, stating “I’m not delusional, I’m not expecting Ron Paul to win the delegates over Mitt Romney,” but hoping that Paul has a strong enough delegate count to put him in good position when it comes to party leadership.

Chris Future, also on Freedom Bunker, makes the case that “at this point, it’s kinda Anyone But Obama.”

To me, it seems like it’s all but inevitable that Gingrich will not make it much longer. Of course, that’s just my opinion/speculation.

Romney, as the establishment’s front man, is not going anywhere.

And Ron Paul’s base is too tight to go anywhere. The guy can continue to raise money (though not enough to match what Romney can pull).

So, essentially, the field is down to 2. It’ll be real interesting to see how the media continues to ignore Paul when he stays in the race until the very end (as I suspect he will).

Of course, we can’t forget former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. An early entrant to the GOP race, he dropped out and joined forces with the Libertarian Party.

In fact, Alexander Burns on Politico called Johnson the “anti-war 2012 candidate”:

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is branding himself as the anti-war candidate of the 2012 campaign, dismissing both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as standard-bearers for “interventionism.”
Johnson, who dropped out of the GOP primary and is now seeking the Libertarian Party’s nomination, said opposition to the war in Afghanistan represents a potent force in presidential politics — one that neither major-party candidate is in a position to channel.
“Get out tomorrow,” Johnson said in an interview with POLITICO. “We should have gotten out of Afghanistan 11 years ago. Eleven years ago! Romney is saying we should stay in Afghanistan until the mission is accomplished. What does that mean?”
Obama, on the other hand, has “doubled down” on an unpopular and directionless war, Johnson said. What’s more, he warned that the White House could try to gain electoral points with a strike on Iran before the November election out of a “political calculation … that bombing Iran shows strength.”

Obviously Congressman Paul shares Governor Johnson’s views on the subject. We’ve heard Ron say “just march home” in reference to bringing our troops home: RON PAUL: How I would bring the troops home

I’m going to go ahead and make a little prediction here. Willard (Mitt) Romney will win the GOP nomination. Barack Obama will defeat him soundly in the general election. I hope I’m wrong about this, and if I am, I will gladly eat crow.

Should Romney lose, the GOP masses will cry about “it was the Ron Paul supporters” and so on. They will be looking for a scapegoat, when in reality they should be looking at themselves for sending Romney to the plate.

Anyways, with Santorum out of the race, what are your thoughts? Personally, if the ballot in November reads Romney and Obama, I’m going to have a tough decision to make.

Aaron Graves

Aaron Graves is a veteran and a staunch libertarian, consistently breaking ranks with his Conservative friends on social issues, and with his Liberal friends on economic issues. He is also the guy that wrote the crap that you just read. Sic Semper Tyrannis