O'HARA TOWNSHIP, PA -- Mitt Romney incorporated April's less-than-stellar jobs report into his assault on the president's economic policies, which he said reflected a "sad time in America."

"Just this morning, there was some news that came across the wire that said the unemployment rate has dropped 8.1 percent.  And normally that would be cause for celebration, but in fact anything over 8 percent, anything near 7 percent, anything over 4 percent is not cause for celebration. But in fact the reason it dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 was not because we created a lot of jobs. As a matter of fact, only 115,000 net new jobs were created. That was well beneath what it was expected to be. It should have been in the hundreds of thousands but it wasn't. The reason the rate came down was because about 340,000 people dropped out of the workforce," Romney said.

Four percent unemployment, a number lower than that sometimes considered by economists as "full employment," is a high bar. The lowest unemployment rate recorded in the last decade was 4.4 percent, in May 2007.

The former Massachusetts governor also hit the president over the growing scale of the federal government, and issued a dire warning about what the future may hold under a second Obama administration.

"Government will control directly or indirectly over half the economy if this president is re-elected, and we will cease being a free economy," Romney said. "We have to ask ourselves, is that what America is? An economy governed by government, an economy run by government? In my view, we must be an economy, a people run by free people pursuing happiness in the way they believe is best for them and their families."

In a statement, the Obama campaign responded.

“From start to finish, Mitt Romney’s speech today was filled with dishonesty and distortions about both President Obama’s record and his own," Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "Mitt Romney’s empty promises on job creation do not square with his record in either the private or public sector."

Romney, who declared succinctly that in regards to the economy, "liberal policies don't work," used today's campaign event outside Pittsburgh to not only attack president Obama's policies on the economy, but to highlight what he said was his own outreach to regular folks to better understand their struggles and successes.

"One of the great things I've had a chance to do over the last, oh, couple of years, is go across the country and meet everyday Americans. And it's made me both more optimistic and enthusiastic about our future, and also more sad as I've seen how tough times are for so many Americans," Romney said.

"The numbers don't really tell you what's going on in people's lives as much as actually talking to people and hearing their stories. And so before I begin an event like this, I typically am able to sit down with a few people on an off the record kinda basis. I agree not to say who they are to the members of my media -- my media, I don't have my media, I wish I had my media -- to members of the media. And I listen to them to hear their experiences. I'm amazed by the hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people," Romney said.

With media not allowed to attend, and no further information offered by the campaign, such meetings are impossible to verify independently.

The Romney campaign did confirm a meeting between the presumptive GOP nominee and one private citizen today: former Senator Rick Santorum, who suspended his cash-strapped campaign in April. The two erstwhile rivals spoke privately for some 90 minutes in the Pittsburgh office of former Santorum strategist John Brabender, according to sources briefed on the meeting.

Romney did not mention the meeting this morning, and Santorum has yet to offer his endorsement.

NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed reporting.

Gene J. Puskar / AP

Surrounded by members of his family, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum announces he is suspending his candidacy for the presidency effective today, Tuesday, April 10, 2012, in Gettysburg, Pa.

It was September when Elizabeth Santorum began making cold calls for her dad.
 
The eldest child of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was not dialing potential voters or donors; Elizabeth Santorum, then 20-years-old, was trying to figure out how to get her father on the ballot in the contests following Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucus.
 
"I would call from my cell phone and my house phone, just call the secretary of state's office or the party's office and say, 'Hi, this is Elizabeth with Sen. Santorum's campaign, and I was wondering if you had your guidelines for getting on your ballot there," she remembers.
 
Her inquiry was often met with the same response: "Ballot guidelines for president? Of the United States?"
 
Rick Santorum ran a campaign drastically different than his Republican rivals.  He had to.  His campaign brought in a meager $6,000-7,000 a day before his surprise win in Iowa.  It meant that vital tasks like getting on state ballots were left to his daughter and a handful of staff with no experience running a presidential campaign.  His cash-strapped candidacy was made up of countless instances where the former Pennsylvania senator needed to find innovative ways to save a buck.
 
Santorum often joked that he ran his campaign on a shoestring "would be an insult to shoe strings."  Still, despite the tremendous disadvantages, he was somehow able to mount the most serious threat to the presumptive Republican nominee -- and did it with only a fraction of the resources.   In 2011, the campaign brought in just over $2 million, the least amount of any GOP candidate.
 
"I don't think anybody understood how little money we had," said campaign manager Mike Biundo.
 
It meant Santorum was cheap.  He had to be.  Staffers would grin and bear it when they found themselves sharing rooms at inexpensive hotels.  The candidate only had one standard that all lodging needed to meet: wherever they stayed, it had to provide a free breakfast.
 
There was no campaign headquarters until the late stages of his candidacy.  The Verona, PA address on mailers and press releases was nothing more than a PO Box in the Keystone State.  When they finally rented a space in northern Virginia, the few staffers who migrated there stayed with friends to save the cost of paying for a hotel.
 
When Biundo was promoted from national political director to campaign manager in October 2011, he served in dual capacities until his old job was finally filled on January 23, 2012.  The campaign didn't hire a delegate strategist until after the February 28 Michigan primary.
 
When an intern helping the campaign in Ohio revealed he was from Idaho and had a family involved in state politics there, he was put on a plane and sent west with the new title of "Idaho State Director."

 
Perhaps more so than any other candidate, Santorum ran nearly every aspect of his campaign.  He kept a watchful eye over finances and used the little money he had to build a candidacy perfectly fit for the grassroots-style politics of Iowa.  But after winning the first-in-the-nation caucus, the difficulties associated with running for president without money or much of an organization became apparent. He wasn't able to get on the ballot in Virginia, couldn't go on air with ads in some of the states he hoped to compete in and his three-person press shop found themselves drowned each day by negative ads and opposition research from Mitt Romney's team.
 
Even with all the disadvantages and disorganization of his campaign, the former Pennsylvania senator who lost his home state by 18 points in his 2006 re-election bid was able to solidify himself as the sole Romney alternative and has now established himself as a leading conservative voice in the Republican Party.
 
*****
 
When Mike Biundo climbed into the rented RV, he knew there was a chance the 23-hour drive would be even less comfortable on the way back then it would be on the way there. It was August, and, not having the money to fly, Biundo packed the camper full of staffers and volunteers to drive to Ames, IA for the straw poll.
 
Biundo remembers it as one of the most difficult times during his boss's run.  At $30 a pop, they feared they had promised to give out more free tickets to the straw poll than they could afford.  While their GOP competitors were advertising free concerts and all-you-can-eat barbecue, Santorum staffers were scaling back everywhere they could to save a dime.  They tried to entice voters with "Presidential Peach Preserve" from peaches picked from the Santorum's home.
 
Senior advisers knew that anything worse than a fourth-place finish on August 13 would likely mean an end to the short-lived candidacy. While the underdog candidate narrowly defeated Herman Cain to take fourth and keep his campaign afloat, his financial troubles never went away.
 
Citing momentum coming off their straw poll finish, Santorum moved his Iowa headquarters.  The only catch was that their new space was actually smaller than the office from which they had moved.  Under the direction of Iowa State Director Cody Brown, the campaign began plugging away in the Hawkeye State.  Brown had only one field staffer until July, and added just a handful throughout the entire campaign.

"One of our competitive advantages was our candidate's time," said Brown.  It was an advantage that can in part be attributed to having few fundraisers.  In the fall, candidates would leave the state to collect checks from big donors -- a time management issue Santorum did not have to deal with.  So, instead of flying out Texas to collect checks, he drove to places like Sioux City, IA to hold town halls where he would talk and take questions for more than an hour.
 
"We had heavy competition in these metro areas because that's where all the candidates were spending their time because that's where the votes are," Brown said.  "So what we did is, we looked at the map, and said, 'Where can we go and pick some fruit that no other candidate's going to be able to pick?'  And so that's when we went out to those rural counties.  That's why we did the 99-county tour."
 
On Nov. 2, more than two months before the Iowa caucus, Santorum had completed the tour and visited all of Iowa's 99 counties.  No other candidates were close to completing the milestone at that time. Twenty caucusgoers showed up to the event Maquoketa, IA, along with NBC News embed Alex Moe, a still photographer and a local print reporter.
 
“[Iowa] Gov.Terry Branstad said if you really want to win Iowa, you gotta get out and go to all 99 counties and meet people,” Santorum said. “He's had a pretty good track record of winning here in Iowa so we're trying to follow his advice and I think it will pay off in the end.”
 
At that time, Santorum sat at just 5 percent in the Des Moines Register poll, behind every candidate except former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.  There was no such thing as a "99 county bump."
 
*****
 
That's what made it a gutsy decision in early December, when Santorum decided to spend money on filing fees to get on the ballot in upcoming primary states. It would mean he could not make the final advertising push in Iowa like nearly everyone else.

It was in the final month of 2012 when Biundo asked Elizabeth Santorum and senior aide Greg Rothman to get on ballots everywhere they could scrap together the signatures and the money.  It was late in the game, and they missed important deadlines, most notably in Virginia, a state where campaign advisers felt they could do well in but ultimately did not make it onto the ballot.
 
"Sitting at 5 percent, we decided not to spend money in Iowa, but to spend money to help us get on ballots across this country. Now you want to talk about hubris, and confidence, people were saying we should get out of the race and we were spending money to get on ballots in March and April instead of trying to survive in Iowa," Santorum said in March when asked why his campaign was unable to file the necessary paper work to be eligible for all of the delegates in Illinois.
 
It was true. For a campaign still running on fumes and sitting at the bottom of the polls, they had enough faith in themselves to look ahead.  And Santorum was not the only one that had electoral issues. Neither Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry nor Jon Huntsman were able to get their names on the Virginia ballot.  But in important primary states like Illinois and Ohio, Santorum's disorganization meant he was not eligible to win all the state's delegates.
 
Santorum's ballot problems could easily have been a non-issue if something didn't happen in Iowa.
 
There was no one moment that things started to shift in the campaign's favor. (That said, many on Santorum’s staff point to the Mike Huckabee's pro-life forum in Des Moines on Dec. 14, when the candidate took the stage wearing a sweater vest as a turning point.  He drew attention and acclaim for his speech that night, and the motto "Fear Rick's Vest" was born.)
 
But Santorum's momentum did not seem to have a single origin.
 
"People who hadn't decided were overwhelmingly deciding in favor of us.  This was the up-and-coming thing, and it came out of nowhere," Elizabeth Santorum said.  "And it wasn't media-created; it wasn't an event or a particular moment that had caused the speculation and interest.  It was just Iowans started deciding."
 
The GOP hopeful took a few days off the trail to be with his family for Christmas.  It was the real first break he had taken in months, and when he returned to the Hawkeye State to go pheasant hunting with Iowa Congressman Steve King, things were different -- in a good way.
 
For the first time in his candidacy, polls showed Santorum on the rise.  Earlier in the month, tea party favorite Herman Cain had exited the race, and caucusegoers showing up at Santorum rallies would frequently say they were giving the former senator a second look after the pizza magnate dropped out.
 
"I felt that, from the standpoint of my family, we were being protected from the spotlight, from the scrutiny, until it really mattered, which was caucus time," said Elizabeth Santorum, who was by her father's side through much of the campaign as her mother cared for their 3-year-old special needs daughter.
 
Jan. 3, 2012, when Iowans finally went to caucus, was the highlight of the campaign for the Santorums and their team.
 
Brown, who was tracking results in a room with a representative from each campaign and members of the Iowa Republican Party, remembers a Romney staffer congratulating him when it looked like Santorum would win.  However, Romney would be declared the initial winner of the Iowa caucus, a blunder that would take nearly 3 weeks to correct and that Santorum advisers feel cost them upwards of $1 million in fundraising.
 
Still, it marked the first time in the campaign that Santorum’s largely ignored candidacy was the headline.
 
*****
 
It was two days later when Santorum got booed off the stage in Concord, NH.
 
Speaking at the 2012 "College Convention," he engaged in a debate -- not with his rival candidates, but with college students.  They pushed him on his views on gay marriage, and he pushed back.
 
Speaking to a crowd of 200 mostly young people, Santorum compared gay marriage to polygamy when crowd members pressed him on his steadfast defense of traditional marriage.  "How about the idea that all men are created [with] equal rights to happiness and liberty?" a woman in the audience asked him.
 
"So anyone can marry can marry anybody else, so, if that’s the case, then everyone can marry several people," Santorum responded.
 
The occasionally contentious exchange dominated the headlines.  The evangelical voters of Iowa were well in the rearview mirror, and Santorum’s campaign in the Granite State was marked by cantankerous young people, Occupy Wall Streeters and fire marshals at nearly every stop, taking head counts and kicking out overflow crowds.
 
"We were not ready as a campaign for prime time," Biundo said.  They spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, but little money.  "It was almost the worst of both worlds," he recalled.
 
The narrative of a campaign stuck on social issues was building.  They were off message in New Hampshire, and it paved the way for losses in South Carolina, Florida and Nevada.  It seemed as though Santorum would go out like a one-hit wonder in the vein of Mike Huckabee in 2008.
 
*****
 
But as the Santorum campaign was losing, it was also building.
 
After the South Carolina primary, they hired someone with the title of national political director, Andrew Boucher.  He began building beyond the carve-out states.  The Northeast Iowa Director became the Colorado State Director and then the Washington State Director.  In many cases, they had no paid staff on the ground until a couple weeks before a primary.  In Georgia, where Santorum finished third behind Gingrich and Romney, the campaign relied on an all-volunteer staff.
 
Though fundraising had picked up after Iowa, the money was still tight.  Their solution was to pay one or two people in a state who would help guide the volunteer efforts.
 
"Instead of the infantry model, it's the special forces model of going in, working with the people that are already there on the ground, organizing them, helping them achieve goals," said Boucher.
 
Flying so low under the radar is a large reason why Santorum was able to sweep Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on February 7.  The three victories would be the second biggest night of the Santorum campaign, but also would make them the Romney campaign's No.1 target, something that their money and organizational deficiencies could not overcome.
 
*****
 
Santorum's hands-on approach kept his campaign in the black for much of his run, but it also caused some avoidable headaches.
 
"I don't want someone trying to tell me what to say," he told staffers during a meeting.  It meant he rarely traveled with anyone from his communications team. There was no one from his team to explain the candidate's statement that President Obama is "a snob" for wanting “everybody in America to go to college,” a statement he made in Michigan in the days leading up to the state's all-important primary.
 
There was no press secretary on the ground to help deflect the repeated questions he faced about contraception and other hot button social issues that frequently drove the campaign off message and painted Santorum as a candidate on the wrong side of women's issues.
 
"We're about to go nuclear with Iran, we have a trillion dollar deficit and we're talking about this.  Are you kidding?" recalled Elizabeth Santorum.  "That was something I got asked all the time: 'You're a woman, how do you support your dad?' That's so insulting."
 
One of the most striking differences between Santorum and his GOP rivals was that he took nearly every question posed to him from reporters following him on the road.  It meant he would find himself answering repeated questions about social issues when he wanted to talk about the economy.  Toward the end of his run, his frustration became more visible.
 
In Wisconsin, after suggesting in a speech that Romney was the worst Republican to run against President Obama, he infamously called a question from the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny "bulls***."
 
(After the blowup, aides said Santorum turned to them and said, "I hope that wasn't a local reporter."  He soon found that Zeleny worked for The Times, and called senior strategist John Brabender to say they were going to "own it."  Shortly after, a fundraising email was shot off to supporters that said he was "aggressively attacked by a New York Times reporter".)
 
Despite the campaign's efforts, Santorum was never able to make the narrative about his economic plan.
 
*****
 
Wisconsin proved to be the final blow.  On April 3, Santorum delivered his concession speech at the Four Points Sheraton in Mars, PA, where staff met for hours discussing Pennsylvania primary strategy.  Though everything the candidate said seemed to indicate he would continue in the race, his inner circle knew the money had dried up.
 
And on Good Friday, as the Santorum family was taking time off for Easter, three-year-old Bella Santorum needed to be rushed to the hospital due to complications stemming from a rare genetic disorder she suffers from, called Trisomy 18.
 
"It was the first three days we had off together since Christmas, and the first day we were in the emergency room.  And you just kind of wonder, can someone cut us a break?" Elizabeth Santorum said.
 
It brought clarity to the decision.  Even the "shoestring campaign" had gone into debt by April, and the all-out blitz it would take to win Santorum's home state would only further put him in the hole.  So around 2 am on April 10, the campaign sent out a press release announcing an event in Gettysburg, PA that afternoon.
 
It was in the town, where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place, that the candidate who had once been branded a long-shot ended his run.
 
"People say, 'How did this happen, how did we come from nowhere?' It's because I was smart enough to figure out that if I understood and felt at a very deep level what you were experiencing across America and tried to be a witness to that, tried to be an interpreter of that, that your voice could be heard and miracles could happen, and it did," Santorum told reporters on the last day of his campaign.
 
In all, he won 11 states, the same number Ronald Reagan won in 1976. It's a fact he liked to point out often, and has fueled plenty of speculation the 53-year-old has plans to run again --  just like Reagan.
 
"I walked out after the Iowa caucus victory and said 'Game on.' I know a lot of folks are going to write, maybe those even in the White House, 'Game over,'" Santorum said in the final lines of his drop out speech.  "But this game is long, long, long way from over."

What we learned from the GOP race… And three questions we have after it’s now over: Did Romney win because he was a better candidate than in ’08? Or because the field was weaker?... Did Santorum help or hurt the GOP?... And can Romney win over his conservative critics?... What’s next for Newt? He’s staying in the race… Team Obama releases web video with Romney’s “greatest hits” from the primary season… Obama delivers statement on the Romney -- err, Buffett -- Rule at 10:15 am ET, while Romney camp holds conference call at the same time… And Crossroads GPS joins the TV-ad tag team against Obama on gas prices.

Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

Surrounded by members of his family, Republican presidential candidate, former Sen. Rick Santorum announces he will be suspending his campaign during a press conference at the Gettysburg Hotel on April 10, 2012 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

*** What we learned from GOP race: After 32 state contests, 20 debates, some $190 million spent by the candidates, and $50 million in ads by the various Super PACs, the Republican presidential primary race officially ended yesterday when Rick Santorum suspended his campaign. (Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul would disagree, but it's the reality.) So what we did learn? That money and organization still matter. That a lack of money and organization can get you second place (at least in this field). That, despite all of his advantages, there was a conservative resistance to Mitt Romney. That, despite this resistance, Romney was always the GOP's best chance at defeating President Obama. That the nearly yearlong primary race -- remember, the first debate was in May 2011 -- has taken a toll on the party and its presidential candidates. And that, because of it, the conclusion to the primary season couldn't have come at a moment too soon for the GOP.

*** Did Romney win because he was a better candidate than in ’08? Or was it simply a weaker field? But the biggest question we have after the past year: Did Romney triumph the GOP nomination because he was better than he was in '08 (when he finished third, behind John McCain and Mike Huckabee)? Supporting this would be his improved debate performances, knocking Rick Perry down in Sept. 2011, and a more comfortable issue terrain (the economy vs. social issues and national security in '08). Or did he win due to extraordinarily weak field? Backing that up would be the quality of his GOP rivals (hello Herman Cain!), his current poll numbers, and his numerous gaffes and unforced errors. We’ll have an answer to this question come November 6.  Many in RomneyWorld believe that what they've pulled off -- convincing a Southern conservative evangelical Christian party to nominate a Northeastern moderate Mormon -- doesn't get enough credit. Of course, they wouldn't use the word "moderate" (at least right now).

*** Did Santorum help or hurt the GOP? Here’s another question: Did Santorum help or hurt the Republican Party in this primary race? As we pointed out a week ago, Santorum accomplished a lot: He won more states than Huckabee did in ’08 and as many as Romney did four years ago; he has the potential to be a significant player in 2016 or 2020; and he repaired some of the damage from his ’06 Senate loss. But you could make the argument that the GOP’s current struggles with female voters and independents can be attributed to some of Santorum’s rhetoric on the trail (calling Obama a “snob” for wanting everyone to go to college, saying that JFK’s 1960 speech on the separation of church and state made him want to “throw up.”). In the general election, we’re going to see Democrats try to make Romney own some of the things that Santorum said. And unfortunately for Romney, he never aggressively differentiated himself from -- or tried to denounce -- that rhetoric. Team Romney believes it's only casual voters who conflate Santorum's comments on women with Romney. And that in time, Romney can fix this.

*** Can Romney win over his conservative critics? And here’s a third question: Can Romney win over the conservatives who’ve been resistant to him? Just check out some of the quotes in today’s New York Times. Tony Perkins: “I just think it’s going to be a much harder lift to take someone who seems like a moderate and try to get conservatives excited about it.” Richard Viguerie: “After having destroyed every conservative that came on the scene, you can’t say ‘You have to line up behind me.’ No, no, no. Conservatives are not going to jump until they hear where Governor Romney wants to take everybody.” And, of course, we weren’t the only ones to notice the folks who endorsed Romney ONLY AFTER Santorum bowed out of the race -- Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott, Pat Toomey. In the next couple of months, Romney will have to fight a two-front war -- against Obama and the Democrats and the conservatives who are still kicking and screaming. Romney probably has no choice but to roll the dice that conservatives will rally. The longer he waits to pivot, the harder it will be.

*** And what about Newt Gingrich? He told NBC’s David Gregory that he will stay in the race and focus for the next 10 days on Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. Beyond that, Gingrich said Santorum’s exit clarifies the race. He wants to spend this period defining what the platform should be and what the issues should be. The implication, according to Gregory: He thinks he has more influence staying in right now. But here’s the problem for Gingrich as he stays in the race. He has to battle embarrassing stories like this one: His $500 check bounced in trying to qualify for Utah’s June 26 primary. Gingrich likes to note that he's come back before, even when folks like us referred to him as Bruce Willis' character in the "Sixth Sense." The better comparison might now be to the Japanese soldiers found after WWII in the Pacific who had no idea the war was over.

*** On the trail, per NBC’s Adam Perez: Romney campaigns in Connecticut and Rhode Island… Gingrich is in Delaware… And Paul holds a town hall in Fort Worth, TX.

*** Romney’s greatest hits (by Team Obama): Now that the GOP primary race is officially behind us, the Obama campaign is out with a searing web video reminding voters of what Romney said during it. “Corporations are people, my friend.” “I like being able to fire people.” “I was a severely conservative Republican governor.” Etc. Bottom line, here’s what the next six months are going to look like: Obama and his allies will try to disqualify him, while Team Romney is going to try to make the state of the U.S. economy stick to Obama.

*** Let’s call it by its real name -- the Romney Rule: Another day, another event around the so-called Buffett Rule. At 10:15 am ET from the White House, President Obama will deliver a statement on the Buffett Rule. But let’s cut to the chase: This isn’t the Buffett Rule; it’s the Romney Rule. While this might not poll well with independent voters, as we wrote yesterday, this Democratic drumbeat is a way to make Romney seem out of touch. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has released this press statement on Obama’s upcoming remarks today: “Sadly, an administration that promised it would focus on jobs is wasting yet another day on a political event that won’t take a single person off the unemployment line.” And at the same time Obama will be speaking, the Romney campaign is holding a conference call on the “Obama economy.”

*** Crossroads joins TV-ad tag team against Obama: This is what the next two or three months will look like as Romney begins to fill his general-election campaign war chest: Crossroads GPS, the outside GOP group backed by former George W. Bush political adviser Karl Rove and others, has a new TV ad knocking President Obama on the issue of gas prices. In what Crossroads GPS says is a $1.7 million buy, the ad is airing in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia. And it's in direct response to an Obama campaign TV ad in these same states -- which was rebutting an earlier ad from a GOP conservative outside group, American Energy Alliance, with ties to the conservative Koch Brothers.

*** Veepstakes watch: The Wall Street Journal writes that there’s growing buzz over Rob Portman… And check out what Paul Ryan said about Romney: “He's kind of a throwback to the '50s.” He later said: “I grew up watching ‘Leave it to Beaver,’ idolizing Mr. Cleaver, Ward Cleaver, and [Romney] has these great attributes, which is he’s a very nice, civil man and he’s very earnest.”

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LANCASTER, Pa. – Hours after announcing he would end his bid for the White House, a relaxed Rick Santorum told supporters here that he is at peace with his decision to exit the presidential race, but his underdog candidacy took a particularly harsh toll on his family.

"It's different than being on the sidelines and seeing the people, the person, you love being hit. It hurts more," Santorum told evangelical leader James Dobson during an hour-long conversation Tuesday night.

"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."

Earlier in the day, the former Pennsylvania senator stood in front of his wife, Karen, and four of his seven children to announce he would suspend his campaign.  The decision came one day after his youngest child, who suffers from Trisomy 18, a rare genetic disorder, was released from the hospital after developing a life-threatening case of pneumonia for the second time this year.

But along with concerns about his 3-year-old daughter's health, other factors were in play when the presidential hopeful decided to call it quits. Continuing could have risked an embarrassing defeat in Pennsylvania, his home state. In addition, a fundraising letter to supporters shortly after the press conference revealed that his frugal campaign was in debt.

Advisers knew the April primaries could pose a problem, but they remained hopeful they could survive through May, with several states holding primaries that looked to favor Santorum. But without money or momentum coming from April, the road to challenging frontrunner Mitt Romney looked bleak.

Speaking with Dobson – a conversation scheduled before Santorum decided to drop out of the race – he said he was proud of his campaign’s accomplishments given that his staff and budget were dwarfed by most of his rivals for the GOP nomination.

His campaign focused on "standing up and speaking up for those who don't have a voice," Santorum told Dobson.

During the conversation he focused on the social issues that came to define his campaign. He spoke of the importance of family, his opposition to late-term abortion and the story of his disabled daughter, Bella and his deceased son, Gabriel.

Asked about what's next, Santorum simply told Dobson: "I’d like to get some sleep."

Rick Santorum suspends his 2012 presidential campaign at an event in Gettysburg, Pa.

Updated 3:02 p.m. - Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suspended his campaign on Tuesday, clearing Mitt Romney’s path to the Republican presidential nomination.

Citing weekend reflection with his family, prompted in part by a hospital stay for his youngest daughter, Santorum suspended his campaign, effective today.

"Ladies and gentleman, we made the decision to get into this race at our kitchen table against all the odds," Santorum said in remarks to reporters in Gettysburg, Pa.

"We made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me and we will suspend our campaign effective today. We are not done fighting."

The announcement effectively stifles opposition to Romney from within the GOP; amid signs that the Republican establishment has started to rally around Romney, the former Massachusetts governor no longer faces any serious conservative challenger.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul remain active candidates, though neither of them have a plausible path to winning the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

The decision comes two weeks before the Pennsylvania presidential primary. Santorum had faced the prospect of an embarrassing loss to Romney that threatened to short-circuit any of his future political aspirations, either statewide or nationally.

Slideshow: Rick Santorum's political life

A look at the Pennsylvania politician — his career on Capitol Hill and his White House aspirations.

Launch slideshow

Santorum’s announcement also follows the second health scare of the year for his daughter Bella who suffers from the chromosomal disorder Trisomy 18.

RELATED: What 'suspending' a campaign means

However, the former senator also huddled with conservative supporters recently to mull whether a path forward for his campaign truly existed. As recently as April 3, when he lost the Wisconsin primary to Romney, Santorum vowed to press forward, and described the race for the nomination as only having reached “halftime.”

Still, the course of the primary campaign meant a remarkable political resurrection for Santorum since his landslide defeat in 2006, when he sought a third term in the Senate. His presidential campaign offered a path to political redemption that had been unthinkable, even as recently as the end of last year.

Santorum called Romney earlier today to relay news of his decision.

"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," Romney said in a written statement following Tuesday'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."

First Read: Santorum's surprising ride

From non-factor to Iowa victor
Santorum was a non-factor in the campaign for most 2011 until a last-minute surge in Iowa, where he had traveled more than any other candidate.

The former Pennsylvania senator had done the first nominating state the “traditional” way, having traveled to all 99 of Iowa’s counties.

Still, a series of candidates – Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Herman Cain and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich – had taken turns surging to the top of the polls in the Hawkeye State before Santorum got his boost, in late December, on the eve of the state’s caucuses.

Santorum battled Romney to a virtual tie in Iowa before the state’s Republican Party crowned Romney the apparent winner by a slim, eight-vote margin.

It wasn't until Jan. 21 – the day of the South Carolina primary – that the Iowa GOP reversed itself due to unaccounted votes and declared Santorum the actual winner of the caucuses. By then, Romney had steam-rolled his opponents to win the New Hampshire primary, and Gingrich had re-emerged as the leading conservative challenger to Romney in the Palmetto State.

Santorum re-emerged as Romney’s biggest threat on Feb. 7, when he stunned the front-runner by winning contests in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.

Santorum as chief Romney alternative
Santorum’s victories in those states again laid bare fissures in the Republican Party over Romney’s candidacy. The most conservative elements of the party appeared unwilling to line up behind Romney. And with Gingrich fading in the aftermath of an onslaught of negative advertising in Florida, Santorum again claimed the mantle of chief Romney alternative. 

The emergence of a supportive super PAC – the Red, White and Blue Fund – helped Santorum make his case. Much of that group’s financing came from investor Foster Friess.

The turning point in the Santorum-Romney battle came in at the end of February.  Rather than skip the primary in Michigan – the state where Romney was raised and where his father had been an iconic Republican governor – Santorum decided to take his battle to Romney’s home turf.

The campaigning turned heavily on issues of class, and Santorum emphasized his commonness with the state’s hard-hit working and middle classes.

He was aided by Democratic-led efforts to remind voters of Romney’s opposition to the 2009 bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, along with Romney’s own missteps (among them, a highly-touted address to a cavernous Ford Field).

But Santorum also found himself the victim of tough ads launched by Romney and Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC.

The former senator was also dogged by questions about hot-button social issues, including contraception – a subject that was at the center of an intense national debate over women’s health issues.

Romney eventually eked out a three-point victory of Santorum, but carried momentum from Michigan (and Arizona, where he won a primary the same day) into Super Tuesday’s slate of 10 contests on March 6. There, Romney used the same strategy he had in Michigan to win six of the states, including Ohio, where Santorum had also sought to challenge Romney.

But Santorum was again able to beat back Romney, who gained some separation from his challengers in the delegate count after Super Tuesday, by way of winning Mississippi and Alabama’s primaries. Romney campaigned fleetingly in the states, but the deep conservatism of both states tilted the contests toward Santorum.

The Gingrich factor
Those primaries also made clear, though, that Gingrich’s continued presence in the race had eaten into Santorum’s support among conservatives.

Backers of the former senator started demanding Gingrich’s exit from the race, but the former House speaker defiantly vowed to continue with his campaign through the Republican convention this summer in Tampa.

All the while, Romney continued to amass delegates by winning caucuses and primaries in far-flung U.S. territories.

And it was one U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, where Romney finally trounced Santorum, despite the ex-senator having campaigned there. He subsequently paraded into Illinois, where he won the March 20 primary in the Land of Lincoln.

Romney’s decisive win in Illinois prompted many national party leaders who had remained neutral – former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, among others – to get off the fence and endorse Romney in hopes of hastening the end of the primary campaign.

Santorum persevered through the April 3 primaries in D.C., Maryland and Wisconsin, then left the campaign trail when his daughter was admitted to the hospital last week.

The ex-senator was reflective in his remarks announcing the suspension of his campaign.

"Miracle after miracle, this race was as improbable as any race you'll ever seen for president," he said, referencing the 11 states and millions of votes won over the course of his campaign. He made no mention of Romney.

Romney still faces token opposition in his march to formalize the nomination. Both Gingrich and Santorum signaled that they would continue – for now – with their campaigns in the aftermath of Santorum's announcement.

"I am committed to staying in this race all the way to Tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice.  I humbly ask Senator Santorum’s supporters to visit Newt.org to review my conservative record and join us as we bring these values to Tampa," said Gingrich, whose persistence in the race had divided votes with Santorum in some pivotal contests.

Paul's campaign manager said that the Texas congressman would "plan to continue running hard" through the August convention in Tampa.

Rick Santorum's daughter, Bella, afflicted with a chromosomal disorder, was taken to the hospital for the second time during this campaign. Santorum is home in Virginia for the Easter holiday.

"Rick and his wife Karen have taken their daughter Bella to the hospital," Santorum Communications Director Hogan Gidley said in a statement. "The family requests prayers and privacy as Bella works her way to recovery."

The Santorums have medical equipment in their Virginia home and and a nurse on call that can tend to Bella. Because of these accommodations, Bella only needs to be taken to the hospital when her condition is very serious, a person familiar with the situation told NBC News.

This is the second time during the campaign that his 3-year-old with Trisomy 18 has needed to be taken to a hospital. Santorum canceled events in late January after Bella was rushed to a Virginia hospital when she developed pneumonia in both lungs.

The Santorums prefer to take Bella to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, but the severity of the January incident caused the family to rush to a hospital closer to their Virginia home.

It is unclear at this time which hospital she has been admitted to.

According to a spokesman at the Texas Republican Party, a member of the Texas GOP’s executive committee drafted an email to call an emergency meeting to revisit its delegate-allocation rules.

And make no mistake: This effort is coming from Santorum world.

Santorum, in fact, commented on this subject yesterday while campaigning in Pennsylvania.

“After Pennsylvania, the calendar in May looks very, very interesting -- a lot of strong conservative states who are looking for the opportunity to tighten this race back up. There's talk now of maybe making the state of Texas, 154 [sic] delegates, a winner-take-all state. We would like that. That would be a good thing.”

And today on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Santorum spokeswoman Alice Stewart added, “Keep an eye on Texas, that’s going to be critical in terms of how the votes play out there, whether it’s winner-take-all or proportional. Texas will be critical in the primary election and everyone needs to pay attention to that."

Right now, Texas is set to award its 155 delegates -- on May 29 -- proportionally. But making it winner-take-all could help Santorum narrow Romney’s delegate lead, if Santorum remains in the race (and more importantly, if he remains competitive).

Per the Texas GOP’s bylaws, you need 15 members of the executive committee to call such an emergency meeting.

And it takes a two-thirds vote at that meeting to propose a rule change -- that would later be sent to the Republican National Committee.

But a Republican official says the RNC is "unlikely" to grant Texas a waiver to change its rules.

"If they succeed in changing the rules in Texas, then they have to come to [the RNC] for a waiver, and it is unlikely to happen."

CARNEGIE, PA -- If there was any question about how important Pennsylvania is to Rick Santorum's presidential campaign, the former Keystone State senator put it to rest today: It's a must win.
 
Speaking to reporters after a stop here at Bob's Diner, Santorum nodded his head as he faced a question about whether or not he needs to defeat rival Mitt Romney in his home state for his campaign to continue. "We have to win here," he stated. "As I said last night, the people of Pennsylvania know me."
 
After losing Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, DC (where he was not on the ballot), Santorum's long-shot chance at the GOP nomination became even longer Tuesday night. He has guaranteed a win in the state he represented for 16 years in Congress. But now, with his back against the wall and calls for him to exit the race growing louder, he acknowledges the need for a victory on April 24.   
 
Hours earlier, campaign aides were more measured when addressing the importance of Pennsylvania. Moments after Santorum exited the stage on Tuesday night as results from the Badger State showed a Romney victory, Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters the state would be just as important to Romney as it is to Santorum.
 
“Pennsylvania is pivotal to our campaign. But it’s pivotal to Romney’s as well because it's – if we head into May with that win, we have momentum going into the states that swing back in our direction. And that’s his worst nightmare, because he wanted this thing to be over a long time ago," Gidley said.
 
Campaign aides point to the delegate-rich Texas, which holds its primary at the end of May, as the light at the end of a tough tunnel. But Pennsylvania is the only state Santorum has a realistic shot at winning in the month of April, and going into next month without momentum could cost the lead in even his most favorable of states.
 
On top of that, the state that Santorum calls home is also the one that delivered him a nearly 20-point loss in his 2006 Senate re-election bid. While his presidential campaign has largely been viewed as an underdog success story, a loss in Pennsylvania could mean he exits the race with another tough loss in his home state.
 
But Santorum feels times have changed, and so have the wants of the electorate.
 
“It’s a whole different world this time around. First of all, I’m running for president, not running for the Senate," he said. "It’s a whole different environment."

"The contrast we can provide in this election, someone from a blue-collar, working-class town in Butler, Pennsylvania, grew up in government housing, who clawed his way ... through the political process, never being anybody’s favorite, always being the underdog, always being someone that that was discounted, and I think folks in Pennsylvania have, for a long time, admired that story and can relate to that story. And I think they will again in this election cycle," he said.

His mathematical chances of winning the GOP nomination are slim. He came up short in the crucial races of Michigan and Ohio. And he just lost the GOP primary contests in DC, Maryland, and Wisconsin.

But Rick Santorum -- despite starting out this presidential season as an afterthought -- has already accomplished a few important feats that shouldn't be overlooked as attention begins turning to the general election. First, with limited campaign funds and almost no real infrastructure, he ultimately emerged as Mitt Romney's chief rival.

Jae C. Hong / AP

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum sits in a booth at Bob's Diner in Carnegie, Pa.

In fact, Santorum's actually won more states so far than Mike Huckabee did in 2008, 11-8. And he's won as many contests as Romney did four years ago.

Second, even if he doesn't win another primary race, Santorum could be a significant player in the 2016 or 2020 presidential contests, although he would face plenty of serious competition (from the likes of Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, etc.).

And third, and perhaps most importantly, Santorum has repaired some of the political damage he sustained in 2006, when he lost his Senate re-election bid in Pennsylvania by a whopping 18 percentage points, 59%-41%.

"It's hard to argue Sen. Santorum hasn't significantly raised his profile nationally among Republican voters, donors and members of the media due to his primary campaign performance," GOP strategist Danny Diaz tells First Read.  

Of course, it's exactly that repaired political image, Republican political observers say, that could be at stake in the April 24 primary in his home state of Pennsylvania. A win there could justify him staying in the presidential contest -- and could serve as a springboard to the May primary races.

But a loss in his home state could be embarrassing. A recent Quinnipiac University poll, conducted before Tuesday's primaries, showed Santorum leading Romney by only six points in the state, 41%-35%.

As GOP political consultant Mike Murphy, who once worked for Romney, tweeted, "Will [Santorum] figure out this week that his potential '16 hand is now stronger than his '12 hand and fold? Or stay in and ruin his long game?"

And if he decides to stay in the race, how he campaigns could be just as important to his reputation, Republicans argue.

"The story until now is a pretty compelling one about a leader who rose from also-ran status to one-time front-runner. If he gets out now, or stays in but runs a positive-only campaign, that narrative will remain largely intact," says GOP political adviser Todd Harris.

"But if he continues with a quixotic slash-and-burn campaign against the man everyone knows is going to be our nominee, he risks being remembered not as a come-from-behind leader, but as a petulant politician who put selfish self-interest ahead of defeating President Obama."