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““Sort of like what Reagan did after he lost to Ford in 1976.”

Reagan fought Ford all the way into the convention, and then was still fighting.

This is typical of the Romney nonsense, his fans are comparing him to Reagan when in reality McCain is still being challenged by Huckabee and we are many months before the convention.

The one term governor from Massachusetts had his shot, pumped in 50 million dollars of his own money to give himself a chance and now after being forced to drop out of a three man race he is formally and enthusiastically endorsing John McCain.

>The key vote of the convention occurred when Reagan’s managers proposed a rules change that would have required Ford to publicly announce his running mate before the presidential balloting. Reagan’s managers hoped that when Ford announced his choice for vice-president, it would anger one of the two factions of the party and thus help Reagan. The proposed rules change, however, was defeated by a vote of 1180 to 1069, and Ford gained the momentum he needed to win the nomination. The balloting for president was still close, however, as Ford won the nomination with 1187 votes to 1070 votes for Reagan (and one for Elliot L. Richardson of Massachusetts).

Reagan endorsed Ford after his defeat, and gave an eloquent and stirring speech that overshadowed Ford’s own acceptance address. Some delegates later stated that they left the convention wondering if they had voted for the wrong candidate.<

Point is simple...Reagan did endorse Ford, whom he had fought tooth and nail. That is the essence, the timing is secondary to that point. Reagan also ended up choosing Bush Sr. as his running mate, whom he had fought even more bitterly in the 1980 cycle.

I understand full well that Romney is not Reagan. Romney was my third choice in this election, and we are now faced, IMHO, with even worse choices.

But my point regarding Romney now backing McCain is that it is not unusual and it certainly does not mean that Romney now espouses the contrary views that McCain espouses...it only means that Romney is throwing his support behind McCain now so that McCain can be in a position to defeat the democrats, either of which cretans would be an even worse disaster for this nation.

Huckabee has every right to stay in it as long as he wishes...but my bet is that at some point in the near future, he too will endorse McCain...and for the same reasons Romney has.

That is all.

Reagan fought Ford all the way into the convention, and then was still fighting.

The primary system has changed since then. We now have too many winner-take-all priamries, but didn't back then. As a result, Ford didn't have McCain's overwhelming delegate lead, and Reagan still had a fighting chance right up until the convention. Romney doesn't. After his big losses on Super Tuesday, his chances of winning became negligible. Dropping out and endorsing the inevitable nominee was his only option.

I am stunned at the stupidity of the Freepers who can't see that.