Romney drops out

Mitt Romney has announced that he’s to suspend his campaign for the Republican nomination to the White House, leaving John McCain, Mick Huckabee and Ron Paul as the only contestants for the honour.  The reason? Well, it’s all for the good of both the USA and the GOP:  

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and frankly I'd be making it easier for Senator Clinton or [Barack] Obama to win.   In this time

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Hillary's loan brings Bill's bills into the picture

Hillary’s decision to loan her own campaign money could transform this race not because of any advantage the cash injection will give her campaign but because of the light it will shine on Bill’s post-presidential activities. Up until now, relatively little has been said about how Bill has earned his money since leaving the White House but now that Clinton family money is being used to fund the campaign it is a matter of legitimate public interest.

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McCain snubs Brown

Gordon Brown will now be regretting briefing this morning that he was going to meet John McCain. The senator has pulled out (he could take the Vietcong, says Iain Martin, but not an hour with Brown). His (cancelled) destination was Germany but it does make you wonder how seriously John McCain takes the UK-US special relationship? Now that Giuliani is out, is there a single presidential contender that has mentioned Britain in speeches? France, yes, Germany, yes – but what about Britain? McCain’s focus is more on Brussels. This from...

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Who is the front-runner here?

Who would have thought that the Clintons would be reduced to loaning their campaign money to see off a better funded challenger? Add this to Hillary’s eagerness for more debates and Obama’s desire to avoid too many of them and it suggests that Obama is, marginally, the front-runner.

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How long will the Democratic contest go on?

Today the one thing that can be said with total certainty about the Democratic race is that it isn’t over. The nightmare for the Democratic party is that no candidate gains a decisive lead and the race ends up being settled at the convention in Denver amidst a furious row about whether delegates from Michigan and Florida, which were stripped of their delegates for holding their contests too early, should be seated and whether it is legitimate for super delegates to ignore the views of the primary electorate, a possibility that...

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The state of the Republican race

The key question in the Republican primary is how many states and delegates can Mike Huckabee win. His surprisingly strong showing has altered the balance of the race and combined with John McCain’s victory in California effectively ended Mitt Romney’s presidential hopes.

Huckabee is even less beloved by the Republican establishment than McCain. His best, and possibly only, route onto the ticket is to pick up enough support that McCain is obliged to offer him a spot to prevent a messy convention.

McCain can be relatively satisfied with...

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London Votes

Andrea Coleman reports on the Democratic primary in London:
As an American citizen who has never lived – or voted – in America, the most striking thing for me about the primary voting in London was that it was so good-natured and sociable. Perhaps this was because everyone was so far away from the main action that the mere fact of being Americans – let alone Democrats – in London inspired a sense of fellow-feeling. The atmosphere felt like a cross between a fete and a school sports event – the wood-panelled...

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The exit polls get it wrong again

You would have thought that we would have learnt by now but journalists and pundits still insist on taking exit polls far too seriously despite how frequently they are wrong. The lessons of 2004, when the exits had John Kerry cruising towards the White House, have been quickly forgotten by most of us including yours truly.

On Tuesday, the exits led us all up several blind allies. To take one example, they suggested that McCain was in a tight race in Arizona which fed heavily into the McCain is underperforming storyline...

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Who has the edge?

The Democratic contest is nowhere near over. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will be ecstatic with their performance on Super Tuesday. Hillary did what she needed to do: win New York and California and prevent Obama from running the table elsewhere. But the prize of Missouri, which would have made her the winner on night, just eluded her. Likewise, Obama did enough: winning 13 states and ensuring that Hillary did not open up a mammoth lead in the delegate count. Yet, he failed to pull off a win in California, Massachusetts or...

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The night turns good for McCain

Just an hour ago, tonight was looking rather disappointing for John McCain. He had, as expected, won in the winner takes all states in the North east but elsewhere he seemed to be rather underperforming and had been piped at the post by Mike Huckabee in several southern races. But he has now won Missouri and California making this into a good night for him especially considering how badly Mitt Romney has done.

McCain would have undoubtedly liked to have wrapped things up tonight but these results are the next best thing for him as they ensure that he is the frontrunner in a three person race. One thing to watch is whether the informal Huckabee McCain alliance continues.

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