Tuesday, April 10, 2012: the day Rick Santorum dropped out of the GOP race and effectively handed over the Republican candidacy to Mitt Romney.

Now this is kind of awkward for me because just last week I was telling readers not to count Santorum out for the candidacy and I am sorry for that rather ill-timed statement. But now I can confidently say he has no chance of winning and that it looks like Romney may be the only contender left. (Now I say “maybe” because, well, you never know, right? Anything can happen.)

I never took Santorum for a quitter, I really didn’t. Newt? For sure. Ron? Maybe. Santorum? Never. Yet here we are. With Santorum out of the running, is there really a point in the other candidates staying in the race? Maybe they could try to make a difference, get their point across or even affect legislation later on, but overall it looks like it’ll be Romney and Obama battling it out come November.

Santorum explained that the health and welfare of his daughter is what made him drop out of the race effective immediately.

For those of you who don’t know, Santorum’s 3-year-old daughter, Bella, has a rare genetic condition called Trisomy 18. Bella was also hospitalized early this week with pneumonia but is now in better condition. The hospitalization of his daughter, the realization he should be there for her and possibly even the battle he has been facing with his own home-state, which he considered a “must win” for his campaign, presumably all aided in Santorum dropping out of the race so abruptly.

With Santorum out of the race many have simply written off Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, the remaining opponents for Romney. I can see why, as stated in my last column, Gingrich has only won two states … and Paul? Zero. I am sad to say this but it doesn’t look too hot for either of them.

Romney’s campaign sent out a statement on Santorum leaving the race, stating, “We both recognize that what is most important is putting the failures of the last three years behind us and setting America back on the path to prosperity.”

I wouldn’t have put it in those exact words, but sure, you go Romney. You go. “Failures” is not the word I would have used. I would have picked something much less harsh, since Obama’s plans and actions weren’t failures per say, I suppose they just weren’t “wins”.

Whether some people like it or not, Santorum was a very strong candidate, and the outcome of the GOP nomination could be looking very different if his daughter had not gotten sick over the weekend. To me, it looks like this won’t be the last we see of Santorum. He has strong conservative views that do appeal to many voters and perhaps if the circumstances were different we’d be seeing Santorum and Obama duke it out. But soon another race will come and with it maybe Santorum.