Yesterday, Mitt Romney, the leading contender for the GOP race for the presidential nomination, swept the most recent primaries.

Wins in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin delivered Romney almost 95 delegates, widening his lead in the race. His nomination at the convention in Miami has almost become a for-gone conclusion.

Romney told supporters last night, “We won them all!” He added, “We won a great victorry tonight in our campaign to restore the promise of America!” His win in Wisconsin applies more pressure to his competitors to drop out of the race to Washington.

These wins, and the reaching of the halfway mark for GOP delegates, signals the end of the primaries as conservative leaders move into Romney’s orbit. Romney’s campaign seeems to already moved into general election mode, as he begins to concentrate on his Democratic rival more and more. Reports have it that Romney will soon begin jointly fund-raing with the Republican National Committee very soon.

Democrats have already embraced the notion that Romney will be the one to beat in November. In fact, President Obama came out against Romney and mentioned him by name for the first time in an ad that came out on Tuesday. The ad was directed at Romney.

Romney came to the defence of his prosperity in a statement, “When you attack business and you vilify success, you’re going to have less business and less success,” Romney said. “In Barack Obama’s government-centered society, tax increases not only become a necessity, but also a desired tool for social justice.”

Even with Romney’s nomination a fore-gone conclusion, Rick Santorum says he plans to stay in the race. But, he has said that the calls for him to withdraw are growing daily. “I get that question more than ‘How are you today?’ You know, this is the narrative that’s being stressed out there,” Santorum said Tuesday on CNN, noting that the calendar in April works against him. “We won a lot of states in March, we exceeded every expectation. We’ve done a great job in taking — you know, taking the seven loaves and fishes and turning it into 11 state wins.”

He will find it increassingly difficult staying the course however in light of the major players moving into the Romney camp. Romney recently got endorsements from George G.W. Bush, Paul Ryan and Senator Marco Rubio.

Next up in the primaries is the race in Pennsylvania, Santorum’s home state. Santorum hopes for a win there and the percieved momentum that a win in the Keystone state could give him. Santorum was ahead in the Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania that came out on Tuesday. He sported a six point lead against Romney. This was before the big win in Wisconsin however, it is possible that that lead coul d have evaporated with the news.

Santorum may very well pull ut of the race if it looks even remotely like he would lose in his home state. He has managed to re-ignite his political career this year with the showing he has made in the race thus far. This is a far cry from what happened to him in the Pennsylvania race fro the Senate in 2006, where he ctrashed miserably. So, a loss for the presidential nod from his state can very well put the damper on his political aspirations once again. It is not likely that he would allow that to happen and many see him stepping down before the vote is taken.

This next wave of primaries do not bode well for Santorum. New York, Connecticut, Deleware, and Rhode Island come up at the same time as Pennsylvania and those states are seen as Romney territory. Santorum needs to get past that set of primaries to other primaries coming up in May that Santorum feels he will do much better in.

Former Representative Phil English, who managed Santorum’s first race in 1990 said, “He’s done nothing to repair the damage that was created in the lead-up to 2006, and a lot of it was self-inflicted,” He added that if Santorum continued to run, the GOP establishment might blackball him in the future, which could severely limit his influence within the party.

“I supported Rick Santorum every time he ran for office and was thrilled he did as well as he did … but Rick Santorum has already effectively lost the nomination,” he said. “The question becomes, does he have any role in the future of the party?”