John McCain
effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on
Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering
presidential campaign. ''I must now stand aside, for
our party and our country,'' Romney told
conservatives.
''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 told
the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
Romney's decision
leaves McCain as the top man standing in the GOP race,
with Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul far behind in the delegate
hunt. It was a remarkable turnaround for McCain, who
some seven months ago was barely viable, out of cash,
and losing staff. The four-term Arizona senator,
denied his party's nomination in 2000, was poised to succeed
George W. Bush as the GOP standard-bearer.
Romney launched
his campaign almost a year ago in his native Michigan.
The former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist
invested more than $40 million of his own money into
the race, counted on early wins in Iowa and New
Hampshire that never materialized, and won just seven states
on Super Tuesday, most of them caucus states.
McCain took the
big prizes of New York and California.
''This is not an
easy decision for me." Romney said. "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.''
McCain prevailed
in most of the Super Tuesday states, moving closer to
the numbers needed to officially win the nomination.
Overall, McCain led with 707 delegates, to 294 for
Romney and 195 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to win the
nomination at this summer's convention in St. Paul,
Minn.
''I disagree with
Senator 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.
Romney
acknowledged the obstacles to beating McCain. ''As of today,
more than 4 million people have given me their vote
for president. That's of course less than Senator
McCain's 4.7 million, but quite a statement
nonetheless. Eleven states have given me their nod, compared
to his 13. Of course, because size does matter, he's
doing quite a bit better with the number of delegates
he's got,'' Romney said.
The Huckabee
campaign said the former Arkansas governor would push on.
''We're still in the race and we're still competing for
delegates, and today demonstrates how long and windy
to the White House this is,'' said Chip Saltsman,
Huckabee's campaign manager.
Romney's
departure from the race came almost a year after his formal
entrance, when the Michigan native declared his candidacy on
February 12, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum of
Innovation in Dearborn, Mich.
Over the ensuing
12 months, Romney sought the support of conservatives
with a family values campaign, emphasizing his opposition to
abortion and same-sex marriage, as well as his support
for tax cuts and health insurance that would benefit
middle-class families.
''We need to
teach our children that before they have babies, they get
married,'' he told voters at his campaign events.
But he was dogged
by charges of flip-flopping, a criticism that
undermined the candidacy of another Massachusetts hopeful --
John Kerry in 2004. In seeking to unseat Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy in 1994, Romney said he would be a better
advocate for gay rights than his rival and he favored
abortion rights.
Throughout his
campaign, Romney was questioned by voters and the media
about his Mormon faith. Hoping assuage voters skeptical of
electing a Mormon president, Romney gave speech on
December 6 in College Station, Texas, that explicitly
recalled remarks John F. Kennedy made in 1960 in an
effort to quell anti-Catholic bias. He vowed to serve the
interests of the nation, not the church, if elected
president.
In early voting
Iowa, Romney sought votes by casting himself as the
guardian of the Reagan-era conservative triad -- a
three-legged stool, as the candidate put it -- of a
strong national defense, strong economy and strong
families.
Fueled by what
would grow to more than $35 million of personal donations,
his campaign hired top-notch staff in the early voting
states, and Romney scored an early win when his
organization topped the field at the Iowa Straw Poll
last August.
By that time, the
national front-runners, McCain and former New York
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, had virtually ceded the lead-voting
state to Romney.
Instead, McCain
focused on New Hampshire, second on the calendar, while
Giuliani employed an untested strategy of waiting out the
early primary contests and instead staking his
candidacy on a strong showing in the January 29
Florida primary.
Romney's goal was
to score back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire,
clearing the field and creating momentum to roll through
Florida -- where he enjoyed the support of top aides
to former governor Jeb Bush -- and seal the nomination
in the Super Tuesday contests.
Instead, Romney
was beaten January 3 in Iowa by former Arkansas governor
Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who received an
unexpected outpouring of support in the caucuses from
voters identifying themselves as evangelicals.
Five days later
Romney suffered a second consecutive defeat in New
Hampshire, when McCain won the primary in part with the
support of independents attracted to his self-styled
maverick campaign.
Romney, who
headed the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City,
tried to cast each defeat in competitive terms, saying
his second-place finishes amount to ''silver medals.''
He also highlighted the ''gold'' he won in between and
in the little-watched Wyoming caucuses.
Nonetheless,
Romney took a cue from Huckabee's win, as well as Democrat
Barack Obama's Iowa upset of rival Hillary Rodham Clinton,
as a sign voters wanted change in Washington.
On the stump, he
retooled his speech to harken back to the theme he
broached in Dearborn, that America's future, and that of its
government, were dependent on innovation. His campaign
also hung new banners reading, ''Washington Is
Broken,'' as well as a to-do list of things Romney would
accomplish as president.
Romney and McCain
went head-to-head in the January 15 Michigan
primary, and Romney won, in part by highlighting his
background as a business consultant and venture
capitalist. When McCain acknowledged what seemed to be
obvious, that not all of Detroit's lost auto industry jobs
would be recovered, Romney pounced.
He accused the
senator of pessimism, outlining a $20 billion industry
recovery package and telling audiences in economically
ailing Michigan, ''I will fight for every single
job.''
Romney also
tweaked his stump speech to criticize McCain for stating
that he was more familiar with foreign affairs and
military matters than economic issues. Highlighting
his 25-year business career, he told audiences,
''Senator McCain says the economy is not his strong suit;
well, it is my strong suit.''
As the calendar
progressed, however, McCain picked up a big-ticket win in
the January 19 South Carolina primary. Romney instead
focused on his victory in the Nevada caucuses the same
day.
Ten days later,
the two squared off again in the Florida primary, where
McCain scored a major upset after winning endorsements from
the state's two top elected Republicans -- Gov.
Charlie Crist, a popular figure who had previously
said he planned to remain neutral in the race, and Sen.
Mel Martinez.
The following
day, Giuliani dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain.
A day later, popular California governor Arnold
Schwarzeneger announced his endorsement of McCain,
reflecting a coalescing of Republican support behind
the senator as he approached a Super Tuesday showdown with
Romney.
Romney's final
pitch was to label McCain a liberal like Clinton and
Obama, a charge tantamount to heresy in the GOP. He was
backed by conservative media voices like Rush Limbaugh
and Ann Coulter. (Liz Sidoti, AP)
