That's It for Mitt
In a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington today, Mitt Romney said he would suspend his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or [Barack] Obama would win," he said in his speech. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
While Romney's name will remain on ballots, he is no longer seeking votes or campaigning, his spokesman Kevin Madden said in an e-mailed response to questions from the Bloomberg news service
"The governor will bring his delegates to the convention'' to make sure he has a say in the party's platform "with the expectation of releasing those delegates to the eventual nominee,'' Madden said.
Romney trailed John McCain in national polls and in the race for delegates to the Republican National Convention, the Bloomberg report noted.
"It was inevitable,'' Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who isn't affiliated with any campaign, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "If he wants to live to fight another day in a way that is viable, he needs to step aside.''
Romney did not offer an endorsement of McCain. "I disagree with Sen. McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating al-Qaida and terror," Romney said.
News sources and political analysts commented that Romney's withdrawal all but seals the Republican nomination for McCain.
"John McCain's going to Disney World," said Dan Schnur, an unaligned GOP strategist who worked on McCain's failed presidential campaign eight years ago.
Schnur told the Associated Press (AP), "Even if every social conservative in the Republican Party turns out for Mike Huckabee in the remaining primaries, he just doesn't have the credentials as an economic and national security conservative to pull this off."
The AP report added, "As it became clear that McCain was the likely nominee, he won the support of several high-profile conservatives and members of the Republican establishment. During a vote on the Senate floor, almost every Republican lined up to shake his hand and congratulate him."