All the news outlets are reporting it and you can watch Santorum’s press conference here.

If these reports are right, I think it’s pretty bad that he took up the anti-Romney mantle, told everyone he was not going to drop out and was going to stay in until Tampa, and didn’t see his campaign through until the end.

Update by Doug: Santorum makes it official, via Fox News:

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said  Tuesday he is suspending his campaign.

He made the announcement at the Gettysburg Hotel in  Gettysburg, Pa., talking about his young daughter’s illness and reflecting on  the campaign.

His 3-year-old daughter Bella was taken to a  Virginia hospital Friday with pneumonia. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania  senator, left the campaign trail until this afternoon. The child has a  life-threatening genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18.

“She’s a fighter,” said Santorum, standing beside  his wife and children. “She’s doing exceptionally well.”

Santorum also faces an uphill battle against  front-runner Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.  Five states, including Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania, hold primaries  April 24.

Romney is spending $2.9 million in TV ads in  Pennsylvania. Romney is far ahead of Santorum in the race for delegates to the  Republican National Convention and is the party’s likely nominee.

Santorum came a long way when you consider he was in low single digits throughout most of the campaign. His surprisingly strong performance, along with Newt Gingrich’s, are far less a reflection of their strengths than they are of Romney’s myriad shortcomings. Here’s a guy who had virtually the entire Establishment at his beck and call, spent more money than everyone else combined multiplied by a factor of five (at least), yet still struggled to close the deal.  Let’s face it, he still hasn’t.  He’s simply the only one with the financial and institutional backing to remain in the race.

Mitt will enter the fall campaign as the weakest general election candidate in recent memory. Even many of his own supporters don’t trust him. He’s the father of the health care mandate and he’ll be unable to credibly contrast his positions with Obama’s on this and a number of key issues.  Oh, did I mention he’ll be the perfect foil for Obama’s ongoing class warfare campaign?  Whatever advantages he had against woefully underfunded challengers in the primaries will disappear in the general.  That this guy is the best we can come up with to run against Obama in an election as important as this is illustrative of the pathetic state of the national Republican Party.

Exit question: How long will it take for Mr. Etch-a-Sketch to ditch his newfound “severe conservatism” and begin his inevitable flip back to his liberal-moderate roots?