Mitt Happens
Businessman does the math, opts to cut losses, lays himself off. The Page here. Boston Herald here. Also stay tuned for McCain’s CPAC speech, reach out to the paleo-cons, and how they receive it.
Declaring he cannot let his “campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Gov. Mitt Romney today announced he would suspend his bid for the presidency and clear the path for Arizona Sen. John McCain to be the Republican nominee, sealing the deal for McCain to clinch the prize that eluded him eight years ago.
“If this were only about me, I’d go on,” Romney said. “Frankly I’d be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama.
“I disagree with Sen. McCain on a number of issues but I agree with him about doing whatever it takes to win in Iraq and finding Osama bin Laden.”
Romney made the announcement at a Washington, D.C., meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee, a right-wing activist organization - essentially allowing Arizona Sen. John McCain to become the GOP nominee.
Romney poured more than $35 million of his personal fortune into his bid for the presidency, which was marked by an unparalleled ground game and meticulous number-crunching strategy that in the end could not deliver.
The Democratic Party immediately cast Romney’s exit — which came just
hours after his campaign announced he would stump in Maryland — as his
latest flip-flop, epitomizing the major challenge that dogged Romney’s
campaign from the start: a problem with authenticity.
At the outset of the election, Romney’s handlers sought to market him as the darling of the right-wing of the Republican Party, with an emphasis on socially conservative values, which invited relentless attacks by Romney’s critics targeting his changed stance on abortion rights. Only recently, with the support of outspoken anti-McCain conservative radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, did Romney gain ground with the party base.
Romney’s speech was magnanimous, with warm words for McCain that stopped short of an endorsement.
“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 Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney said.
“This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters… many of you right here in this room… have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country,” Romney said.
…
Ironically, it was in Romney’s departure speech that he appeared most comfortable in his own skin, especially when the former venture capitalist spoke of the economy.
An unusually animated Romney declared that most politicians don’t understand that, “If you depress the private sector you depress the well being of all Americans.
“It is high time to lower taxes, including corporate taxes,” Romney said to applause. “To take a weed wacker - get out that weed wacker and take it to regulations and reform entitlements and by the way stand up to the increasingly voracious appetite of the unions.
“The last thing peace has ever known and will ever know is a strong America,” Romney said.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:36 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2008
3 Responses to “Mitt Happens”
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February 7th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Good speech by Romney, and I hope it makes some people think about how they’re going to vote this year.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Well done Mitt. I hope that McCain reaches out to him as VP or Secretary of the Treasury.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
What a contrast between this Romney speech, and this Romney!, to everything I’ve seen from him before. It is the first time I got the idea that he was honestly speaking his mind, as opposed to the cynically manufactured rhetoric we hear from absolutely every campaigning parrot. For that, no matter how belatedly offered, I thank him.