Yesterday, after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, Mitt Romney officially dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. According to The Wall Street Journal Romney was prepared to make the following statement at a political conference yesterday, “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 was already well behind McCain and the chances of him catching McCain were slim to none. This move is probably a wise one on behalf of Romney, and it will likely end up being helpful to his party.
The next question is whether Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul will drop out. According to The Wall Street Journal, Huckabee has no intentions of dropping out. "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," Chip Saltsman, Huckabee's campaign manager, said. If Huckabee really is planning to continue his run, this move by Romney should only help him as he now has one less obstacle in his way. However, he is so far back right now that things don’t look good for Huckabee.
Paul also doesn’t appear ready to throw in the towel yet, even though he trails all other nominees for delegates and has yet to win a single state. His campaign website makes it clear that his intention is to fight this battle all the way to the end, and because of his fundraising ability, he has the resources to do so. Still, the chances of Paul winning the nomination are slim. In order for that to happen, McCain would have to basically be removed from the race altogether, and unless McCain has some scandalous secret still hiding away, it probably isn’t going to happen.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out and whether Huckabee or Paul follow Romney’s lead. After all, if they want to do what’s best for the Republican party, and if they want to have the best chance of having a Republican president, they would back out now. The more time McCain has to focus on the general election, and the more money he can raise, the better his chances. For the most part, he has already won the Republican nomination, but he can’t overlook the rest of the primaries just yet. It wouldn’t be sporting of Huckabee or Paul to just give it away anyway, and it doesn’t appear like that is going to happen.
4 comments:
"After all, if they want to do what’s best for the Republican party, and if they want to have the best chance of having a Republican president, they would back out now."
This isn't a sporting event ladies and gentlemen; we're electing a president of the United States.
No one should step down for the good of the PARTY. Screw the party. It is the candidates' POSITIONS ON THE ISSUES that matter.
This "obstacle is going to cost McCain millions! No one seems to focus on that aspect of the race. It's a BIG deal that it's still going on. Now the McCain people have to shell out more money in advertising to portray their already weak candidate as viable to the remaining states...There's a reason the other 2 candidates stay...Romney and McCain are NOT real Republicans. Look at their voting records.Nothing about them is conservative. We can't have another Bush. That's all McCain is, Bush with better enviornmental policies. To suggest that we should just blindly vote for a party nominee because of the brand name (Republican) is absolutely ridiculous and very anti-American to me...
Amen, Mr. Morales. Everyone I know is sick and tired of the MSM telling us who we are going to vote for, who the front runner is and how the GOP is going to have just "suck it up and vote for McWar."
I just wanted to throw it out there, that I'm not advocating for Huckabee and Paul to drop out. If that is how my post came across it was certainly not my intention. I was just commenting on Romney's statement about wanting to do what's best for his party and increasing the chances of getting a Republican in the White House. If the primary goal for Huckabee and Paul is the same as what Romney says his is, then it would be an easy decision and they would drop out. It is a no brainer that if Huckabee and Paul were to drop out now, McCain would have an easier road ahead. Whether or not McCain is truly a Republican, and if Paul and Huckabee dropping out is really the best thing for the party, is a whole different story. Either way it does not appear that Huckabee and Paul agree that the best thing for the party is for them to step down, and they have no plans as of yet to do so.
Also I very much support voters in voting for their candidate and not following the crowd. I think the ability to do so is part of what makes America so great. See my prior post: http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/blogs/investorcentric/2008/02/super-tuesday-has-arrived-vote-for-your.html
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