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Romney drops out

Peter Hoskin

Thursday, 7th February 2008

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 of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. This is not an easy decision. I hate to lose.

If this were only about me, I'd go on. But it's never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country.”

Romney’s magnanimous words will appeal to the party faithful, and may even build some bridges with his former rivals after what was a heated campaign. But I suspect there are also less selfless motivations. After all, Romney’s already spent $millions of his own money on the Presidential bid, but it’s all been to little avail. John McCain has won himself a healthy lead (McCain has 707 delegates; Romney was previously in second with 294), and continued campaigning would have been nothing more than a bad investment for Romney.

So what does this change? It all-but-confirms McCain as the Republican nomination, and Romney’s idea that his standing-down will galvanise Republican support behind the front-runner is persuasive. Even if McCain isn’t conservative enough for some, he’s all they’ve realistically got now.

McCain, then, certainly has a head-start against Senators Clinton and Obama in the Presidential race proper. The question now is of how the two Democrats will respond…