Kai Ryssdal: Rick Santorum said today he’s not done fighting, but he is done campaigning. Santorum ended his Republican presidential bid today.

That means — no disrespect to the Gingrich and Paul camps intended — that Mitt Romney’s path to the GOP nomination is basically clear. It also means a change in how millions of dollars in political money is gonna be spent. Marketplace’s Bob Moon reports.

Bob Moon: While the remaining primary elections will go on, Santorum’s withdrawal means the GOP contest is all but decided.

John Dunbar: It was over anyway, but now it’s really over.

John Dunbar follows politics at Washington’s Center for Public Integrity. He says Santorum has saved big money not only for Mitt Romney’s campaign, but super PACs aligned with the Republican Party can now put their money where it needs to be.

Dunbar: It frees them up to just go straight at the president.

At the PoliticalWire website, Taegan Goddard says Romney had been preparing to spend nearly $3 million to ensure a convincing victory in Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania.

Taegan Goddard: It was going to be the most amount of money the Romney campaign had spent in any other state except Florida, and then we learned today that a super PAC that is aligned with Mitt Romney, called Restore Our Future, had also begun to target ad buys in the state.

Now, Goddard says, Republicans can give some much-needed attention to beefing up their warchest.

Goddard: Really it’s a big move by Santorum. Not only does he free up money for the Romney forces, but he changes the entire focus of this race right now.

In other words, he says, the general election just started.

I’m Bob Moon for Marketplace.