American millionaire businessman, Mr Mitt Romney, effectively won the Republican nomination to challenge the incumbent, Mr Barack Obama, in the US Presidential race after his closest challenger Mr Rick Santorum suddenly dropped out of the contest.
Mr Santorum's sudden announcement came last night, a day after his campaign said that his youngest daughter, Ms Bella, had been hospitalised. This smooths the way for Mr Romney to take on Mr Obama in the November election.
As contours of a straight Obama—Romney fight emerged, a campaign manager for the incumbent President warned the republican challenger against using negative tactics during the campaign.
Mr Obama's Manager, Mr Jim Messina, issued a written statement reacting to Mr Santorum's withdrawal, saying that Mr Romney may have been able to grind down his opponents, but “won't be able to buy the presidency.”
Dropout speech
In his dropout speech, Mr Santorum did not mention Mr Romney, but his spokeswoman told CNN that “Mr Romney and Mr Santorum had a nice conversation” and “would be talking again.”
Though Mr Santorum trailed as a distant second in the battle for Republican presidential nomination, he said, “While this presidential race is over for me. We are not done with the fighting” as he pledged to do what he can to defeat the democratic candidate.
Mr Santorum quit the race just two weeks before a primary vote in his home state of Pennsylvania, where opinion polls suggested he may lose to Mr Romney.
The Republican National Committee called Mr Santorum's decision to dropout as “commendable.”
Pressure will now build up on former House Speaker, Mr Newt Gingrich, to drop out and let the Republicans rally round Mr Romney.
Mr Gingrich has just won contest in only two states and has acknowledged that Mr Romney was his party's most likely nominee.
With this Mr Romney is now all set to be the Republican nominee, even though he is yet to reach the magical figure of 1,144 delegates to earn the presidential ticket.
As of now he has 656 delegates. Mr Romney was followed by Mr Santorum with 272 delegates, Mr Newt Gingrich (140) and Mr Ron Paul (67).