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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum announced yesterday that he plans to end his presidential campaign, finally seeming to bring the long primary contest to an end.

The consensus among both the Republican voters and the party establishment seems to have finally settled on former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as the best nominee to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

This consensus has been one of the party’s hardest fought battles of the past 20 years, with each candidate experiencing a brief time in the spotlight then quickly being clobbered into submission at the back of the pack. From Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota to Georgia entrepreneur Herman Cain, they came and fell, and eventually the battle settled on Romney, Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and back-of-the-pack Texas Representative Ron Paul.

I predict Gingrich will withdraw soon, for similar reasons that compelled Santorum.

Gingrich predicted this past weekend, on Fox News Sunday, that Romney would be the nominee. This admission, and his weak fundraising, coupled with lackluster performances in the past few state contests show that his campaign is reaching an endpoint. He ought to end it admirably and begin to build support for Romney against Obama.

Santorum’s end to his campaign was graceful, considering that he has been a combative and fiery warrior against Romney. His fundraising has also been lacking as of late, and he has been confined to his home state, Pennsylvania, fighting for ground against Romney. A Pennsylvania loss for Santorum would have added insult to injury; losing the state he represented for years in Congress would be a seemingly undignified end to a campaign which just drew its final breath.

Santorum’s youngest daughter, Bella, has also been hospitalized several times this year, due to her rare genetic disorder.  His three-year-old’s health troubles are heartbreaking for the American public and may have ended the campaign.  A sickness in the family is, of course, an adequate and understandable reason for a candidate to withdraw from the nomination, and Santorum may have chosen to bow out now with honor and class, instead of waiting until after he lost more states and exited like a disgruntled loser.

Of course, he may be positioning himself for a 2016 run – who can really say?  At 53, he is certainly young enough to try again in four years.

As for Paul, who has never received even a plurality of votes in a state contest, it’s difficult to see him withdrawing. He is the kind of tenacious and persistent man who will fight for a cause until he can fight no more. In 2008 he and his supporters even held a sort of “anti-convention” and rallied to support Paul right up until Arizona Senator John McCain was nominated. This is Paul’s third run for the White House, and probably his last, at age 76.