Hours after Rick Santorum bowed out of the Presidential race, front-runner and now presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney offered some strong words of support for his toughest opponent, before immediately pivoting to his upcoming general election battle against President Obama.

“He has made an important contribution to the political process, has brought forward issues he cares very deeply about and has been able to gather a great deal of public support and interest in those issues and in himself,” Romney said about Santorum while speaking at a steel plant in Wilmington, DE. “He will continue to have a major role in the Republican Party.”

Romney appeared at ease and upbeat during the event, even taking unplanned questions from the audience.  

That could be because Santorum’s exit essentially clears the path for Romney to the nomination. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul remain in the race, but neither has a viable path to attaining the 1144 delegates needed.  The Republican Party is falling into step, immediately coalescing around him. (read more)

Hours after quitting the presidential race, Rick Santorum sat down with one of his biggest supporters, Dr. James Dobson, to reflect on the day’s events.

“I can't say it was an emotional moment for me,” Santorum said of his announcement in Gettysburg. “I know it was a little tougher for the family, always is tougher for the family."

His wife Karen had also been scheduled to appear at the Lancaster Bible College forum, but Dobson told the audience before Santorum took the stage that "she just didn't feel she had the emotional strength to come" given the turn of events with the campaign and their daughter Bella’s bout with pneumonia.

Standing next to her husband at Gettysburg, Karen had been seen with tears in her eyes.

“When you’re out there in the arena, and the adrenaline is flowing, and you’re getting hit, and you’re hitting back, and sort of going back and forth It's different than being on the sidelines and seeing the people, the person you love being hit. It hurts more,” Santorum said of the campaign’s toll on his family. “And so it was a little tougher for Karen and the kids. They did an amazing job as they always have in standing behind me in every sense of the word." (read more)

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign Tuesday afternoon during an event in his home state of Pennsylvania.

"We made a decision to get into this race at the kitchen table, against all the odds," Santorum told reporters in Gettysburg Tuesday afternoon. "And we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting."

In the wake of Santorum dropping out of the race, Mitt Romney becomes the undeniable frontrunner to become the GOP presidential nominee.

"Senator Santorum is an able and worthy competitor, and I congratulate him on the campaign he ran. He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation," said Romney in a statement released shortly after Santorum's announcement. "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."

However, the other two candidates in the race are vowing to stay in for the long haul (read more)

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. -- GOP hopeful Rick Santorum took a surprise trip down memory lane Wednesday, courtesy of a gift given to him by one of his longtime supporters.

Following a campaign rally here with a homecoming theme and a marching band, the former Pennsylvania senator was approached on the rope line by a man holding a picture taken 18 years ago, when Santorum was making his first run for the U.S. Senate.

In it, Santorum is holding a baby boy in his arms.

"That little guy right there is the big tall kid," Santorum said as he looked at the picture of him cradling his son. "That's John, back in 1994, he was all of 2 years old. That's pretty cool."

The gift was handed over by Dale Dilling, one of Santorum's county chairs in 1994.

It comes as Santorum kicks off the campaign to win his home state's primary -- a contest he guarantees he will win and also admits he must.

He will have a lot of work to do. While Santorum has held a solid double-digit lead over Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania over the past few weeks, the latest Real Clear Politics average shows he is now up by just 6 points.

The former senator is banking on his Keystone State beginnings, and some of those same supporters of the past who propelled him to that senate victory back in 1994. (read more)

Rick Santorum's wife Karen was very reluctant when her husband started thinking about running for president; but, a year and a half later, she says it was impossible to ignore "God's will."

Karen Santorum, in an interview with Fox News, said it took a very long time to make the decision, because she had originally "totally closed the door to the idea." The former senator was focused on being a father-- coaching little league and watching softball games. So, her husband asked her to start praying about it. "In the end, despite my resistance, when God asks something - you do it. And so we are on the path."

That path has been a long one.

And now, Mrs. Santorum says they are "in it for the long haul." In fact, she is looking ahead to Tampa. In an interview with Fox News, Mrs. Santorum dialed back expectations in Rick Santorum's home state, saying they are "hoping for the best" in the Pennsylvania in a few weeks. But she did point out Pennsylvania is a blue state, and "it's important to remember there were four races before the last one, that we won." She is referring to her husband's failed Senate re-election bid in 2006. (read more)

On the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” Mitt Romney pegged Rick Santorum as "press secretary" in a friendly game of word association. 

The banter began when Leno teased Romney for saying he hadn't made a list regarding potential Vice Presidential picks, arguing it would be "presumptuous." 

"I am not even running, and I have made a list," Leno joked. 

The late night talk show host proceeded to ask Romney to offer one word answers to describe several prominent Republicans. Romney's answers drew large laughs from the crowd. 

He called Chris Christie "indomitable," Paul Ryan "creative," Nikki Haley "energetic," Donald Trump "huge," and Rick Santorum "press secretary."

The swipe was seemingly aimed at Santorum's recent profanity-laced outburst on the press at an event in Wisconsin.  But it wasn't all laughs for Romney on the show. 

Leno grilled the Presidential candidate on various issues including Obama's controversial healthcare law presently being heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. Romney vowed again to repeal and replace ObamaCare. (read more)

The Supreme Court is taking at a hard look at the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law this week.

Monday marked the first day of arguments and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared outside the Supreme Court, making a case that he, not Mitt Romney, is the best candidate to take on Obama in the fall.

"There's one candidate who's uniquely disqualified to make the case. That's the reason I'm here and he's not," Santorum told reporters gathered outside the Supreme Court

Mitt Romney routinely says that he would repeal Obama's health care law if he is elected president. However, Santorum maintains that Romney is disqualified because of the health care law he put in place in Massachusetts when he was the governor of the Bay State.

"He is uniquely disqualified on the biggest issue of the day," Santorum told Fox News earlier on Monday. "On the one that pinpoints and summarizes all that's wrong with Washington, all that's wrong with government involvement in our life he can't make, in fact doesn't and won't make the case." (read more)

With Rick Santorum's stinging charge that voters would be better off re-electing President Obama over Mitt Romney next fall still reverberating throughout the political landscape, political strategist Brad Blakeman found the approach questionable.

"It's not a very good strategy" he explained to Chirs Stirewalt on Power Play Live, and added, "There's certainly no way he can endorse Romney now."

Santorum and Romney have been locked in a bitter battle for months for the GOP nomination to take on President Barack Obama next fall. Santorum's comments followed a week that saw Romney win the Illinois Primary, and secure the endorsement of both former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint.

You can see the entire Blakeman exchange with Striewalt below, and join the show live each weekday at 1130am EDT at http://live.foxnews.com.

 (read more)

HOUMA, Lousiana -- Brandishing an Etch a Sketch, Newt Gingrich told diners at Big Al's Seafood that the story which has been dogging the Romney campaign since Wednesday morning makes sense because of Romney's reputation for evolving positions.

"Given everything people have said about Governor Romney's flip-flops this just reminded people of what everybody has been afraid of," said Mr. Gingrich.

Polling in Lousiana shows Mr. Gingrich running neck and neck with Romney for second place here. "If you're serious about changing Washington, you can't do it with an Etch a Sketch," the former House Speaker told a receptive crowd.

Meanwhile Rick Santorum was in San Antonio, Texas, blasting Romney for the second day in a row over his aide's suggestion that Romney can reset his whole campaign like an etch a sketch for the head to head battle against President Obama.

"All the things that allow Romney to win the primary, are unavailable to him to win the general, and that's why you see these etch a sketch comments because he knows what he's doing now can't win, so he has to reset everything and figure out another way to win this election," said Santorum. (read more)

Nicknames. They're the worst-kept secret held by the U.S. Secret Service.

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney recently received Secret Service protection, but any attempt to protect their nicknames has already been abandoned.

The names are out -- Santorum is "Petrus" and Romney is "Javelin."

Santorum told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Monday that Petrus is the Latin word for "Peter," which is his son's name as well as a variation on his grandfather's Italian name.

"You've heard me talk repeatedly about my grandfather.  His name was Pietro.  And I just didn't think Pietro would work.  I just -- it's a name and I didn't want a name.  So I thought Petrus, which is the Latin word for 'Peter' and for 'rock.'  I thought (it) was a more apt name than an Italian name for Peter," Santorum said.

Taking a jab at his Republican rival, Santorum added that he thought Romney was named after an American Motors car. 

"I remember the Javelin.  It was a very -- it was an unusual car.  So I think it sort of fits," he said.