The biggest story recently to come out of the 2012 presidential election is that Rick Santorum has dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination. This turn of events means that the primary election is a one-horse race to the Republican convention in June for Mitt Romney. But take a look at why Rick Santorum dropped out of the race and its significance.

Rick Santorum’s campaign strategy was to sell himself to voters as a strong social conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, whose conservative credentials have been in doubt among Republican voters. This helped Santorum in Southern states like South Carolina which propelled him to the top of the polls after being at the bottom for much of the past several months. This strategy did not bring him victories in important general election states like Florida, Michigan and the all important swing state — Ohio. The significance of those outcomes was that the voters preferred the candidate whose campaign message was focused on economic and financial issues. Basically, the voters in these states are more concerned about who is going to bring the jobs back rather than who is more socially conservative.

Politically speaking, it was in Rick Santorum’s best interest to drop out from the election. With Santorum falling farther and farther behind in the delegate