After five days of conferring with family, donors and campaign advisers, Rick Santorum is back on the campaign trail for President of the United States.  This, despite reported “professional and personal” advice to the contrary.

Mitt Romney’s campaign pulled advertising on Monday, in deference to the illness of Santorum’s 3-year old daughter.  But other PAC’s march forward.  Romney’s growing and daunting organization, along with a giant lead in delegates and super delegates, will likely cinch the GOP nomination in just a few weeks.  This week alone, Romney’s supporting PAC plans to spend $480,000 on the airwaves in Pennsylvania.

What does Santorum hope to gain by staying IN? It’s puzzling, and here’s why:

1- One would think that the former Pennsylvania Senator might call the race, simply to return home for good and be with his youngest child Bella, who struggles with continuing health problems.

2-  Looking ahead, making friends and not enemies of top Republican leaders across the country would be ANOTHER reason to read the writing on the wall, be a team player, and look towards 2016.

3-Most importantly, forcing the almost certain nominee, Mitt Romney, to waste continuing and precious campaign dollars to continue to defeat  Santorum, only makes it HARDER for Republicans to gear up to face Barack Obama in the coming months. There is no way that Rick Santorum is not burning bridges.

Here’s what Reuters is saying:

“A loss in Pennsylvania in the April 24 primary would be seen as hammering the final nail into the coffin of Santorum’s campaign and unofficially crown Romney as the Republican who will face President Barack Obama in November’s election.

Neither Santorum nor the Super PAC that supports him has started spending money on advertising in Pennsylvania, but spokeswoman Stewart insisted the campaign had the money to spend time on the air.

SANTORUM SPENDING

“We have a plan in place. When the time is right for us, we’ll go up,” Stewart said. “Like every other state, there’s no way we can compete with the financial advantage the Romney campaign has.”

As well as enjoying a clear lead in fundraising, Romney is well ahead in the race to reach the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination at the Republican convention in August.

“It’s kinda hard for anyone to get the delegates to pass me at this stage, so it looks pretty good,” Romney said on Mike Huckabee’s radio show.

Romney also led in one poll in Pennsylvania last week, but that has not been enough to convince Santorum to leave the race.

“There’s no good reason to get out” unless the polls continue to slide in Romney’s direction, said Republican strategist Rich Galen.

Santorum is considered to have his eye on another presidential run in 2016 and may not want to upset the party by staying in too long this time around and hindering Romney’s ability to campaign against Obama.

But 2016 is a long way off and the presidential field could be packed with rising Republican stars like Florida Senator Marco Rubio, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and South Dakota Senator John Thune crowding out Santorum.

“There’s a ton of people” who will line up to run in 2016 if Obama holds on to the White House this time around, and Santorum is by no means at the top of that list, Galen said.

“The notion of Rick Santorum being the early front-runner in 2016 from (April) 2012 is a non-starter,” Galen said. “There is a lot of talent in the Republican Party that he’s going to have to climb over.”

Perhaps Rick Santorum is staying in the race….because he actually believes he can still…..WIN.  He has two weeks to win back the 400,000 votes which Pennsylvanians placed AGAINST him, the last time the name Santorum was on the ballot in his home state.  Stay tuned.

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Apr 9, 2012