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Romney ends campaign; Huckabee vows to go on
The Hill ^ | February 7, 2008 | Sam Youngman

Posted on 02/07/2008 11:52:54 AM PST by Kaslin

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination Thursday in front of the crowd that made him the conservative candidate one year ago.

After long remarks defending his conservative beliefs to the the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual convention, Romney said if he stayed in the race it would only strengthen the Democratic candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.).

"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," Romney said. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Romney added: "I hate to lose."

Romney's departure all but assures that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) will win the GOP nomination. McCain has a substantial delegate lead over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee’s campaign said Thursday he will continue his quest for the Republican nomination now that Romney is out of the race.

“We know it's an uphill climb, but we knew that a year ago when we announced,” said Kirsten Fedewa, a Huckabee spokeswoman.

She said Huckabee’s campaign planned to “press forward.”

The back of the convention ballroom was abuzz with reports that Romney was leaving the race moments before he addressed the crowd. The former governor suffered losses devastating to his presidential hopes on Super Tuesday.

Romney and his staff said Tuesday night and all through Wednesday that Romney was intent on staying in the race to challenge McCain and Huckabee.

But Wednesday afternoon The Hill reported that Romney planned to meet with his congressional supporters after addressing CPAC.

At CPAC's conference last year, Romney won the straw poll while McCain was booed for skipping the event. The CPAC crowd was dejected when Romney began to hint that he was in fact leaving the race.

With Romney out, McCain is considered by most to be the presumptive frontrunner. That said, Huckabee strung together an impressive slew of Southern victories on Super Tuesday, winning contests in his home state as well as West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; cpac; huckabee; mikehuckabee; romney
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To: Kaslin

So - who gets his delegates?


41 posted on 02/07/2008 1:27:05 PM PST by TheBattman (LORD God, please give us a Christian Patriot with a backbone for President in 08, Amen.)
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To: Kaslin

Let me guess, when you like the guy and he changes position, that’s a “seeing the light.” When you don’t like the guy and he changes position that’s a “flip-flop.”


42 posted on 02/07/2008 1:27:40 PM PST by Philly Nomad
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To: freekitty
Do the American people atleast conservative American people have a say in this at all.

Apparently, the answer is "NO".

43 posted on 02/07/2008 1:31:17 PM PST by TheBattman (LORD God, please give us a Christian Patriot with a backbone for President in 08, Amen.)
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To: Bitsy

I don’t think that will be possible in just four years - I knew it was all over for Romney when Catholics started sending me all these emails telling me not to support Mormons in politics, since so many of their converts were former Catholics.


44 posted on 02/07/2008 1:42:43 PM PST by Baladas
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To: elizabetty

It’s gonna be fascinating to watch Huck explain why he still has nothing bad to say about Johnny Mac.


45 posted on 02/07/2008 1:57:16 PM PST by WillRain ("Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.")
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To: Philly Nomad

No, flip flopping is when you change your mind to whatever the polls say at the current time, or whatever the audience wants to hear. Hillary comes to mind


46 posted on 02/07/2008 2:01:01 PM PST by Kaslin (Peace is the aftermath of victory)
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To: Kaslin

So when Mitt was running for elected office in liberal Massachusetts he was anti-Reagan, anti-life, anti-conservative. But when he was running for the nomination of the Republican Party he saw the light and became pro-life, pro-Reagan and pro-conservative.

Boy, Mitt sure had lucky timing to see the light right before he ran for the nomination.


47 posted on 02/07/2008 2:27:24 PM PST by Philly Nomad
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To: arturo

He is not walking the walk as a Christan. I know fine Christan men and Mike Huckabee is nothing like them


48 posted on 02/07/2008 3:10:14 PM PST by elizabetty (Mike Huckabee for President of the Confederate States of America -- Bad for the UNION)
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To: Greg F
It does not matter.

He would have to win 85% of the delegates left to be awarded.
49 posted on 02/07/2008 3:11:37 PM PST by elizabetty (Mike Huckabee for President of the Confederate States of America -- Bad for the UNION)
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To: TheBattman

I am all for screaming to the high heavens until they hear us to get our choice of candidate(conservative)and vote back.


50 posted on 02/07/2008 3:13:15 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: Philly Nomad

Huh?


51 posted on 02/07/2008 3:18:45 PM PST by Kaslin (Peace is the aftermath of victory)
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To: Kaslin

Mike Huckabee is the only honest man left in the election.

Somebody needs to explain to me how a dead, buried and broke John McCain came to be the presumptive nominee.

Something stinks really, really bad.


52 posted on 02/07/2008 3:45:22 PM PST by Walrus (Those who work should eat better than those who do not)
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To: Walrus
Mike Huckabee is the only honest man left in the election

ROFL

53 posted on 02/07/2008 3:47:55 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (The Constitution does not give me the authority to run your life - Ron Paul)
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To: elizabetty

He would have to win 85% of the delegates left to be awarded.
______________________

To win. He needs about 50% to keep McCain from getting the nomination and throwing this to the convention.


54 posted on 02/07/2008 5:06:31 PM PST by Greg F (A vote for Huckabee is now a pure vote for a contested convention. Think about it.)
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To: Walrus

Somebody needs to explain to me how a dead, buried and broke John McCain came to be the presumptive nominee.
__________________________

RINO Romney’s money pushed everyone else out of the race.


55 posted on 02/07/2008 5:13:10 PM PST by Greg F (A vote for Huckabee is now a pure vote for a contested convention. Think about it.)
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To: Kaslin

I’ll try it again, Mitt was saying anything the liberals wanted to hear to win in Massachusetts and when he decided to run for the Republican Nomination he was saying anything the conservatives wanted to hear.


56 posted on 02/07/2008 6:46:55 PM PST by Philly Nomad
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To: HamiltonJay
What? Hucks continuing on???? I thought everything Huck Did was to be in cahoots with McCain to destroy Romney.... (rolling eyes).... SO much for that conspiracy theory.. but somehow I doubt those who espoused it will apologize and recognize they were wrong.

They never apologized for the meme that Thompson was going to drop out after IA/NH and endorse McCain. They also never apologized for the Thompson-as-stalking-horse conspiracy, even though polls from after he dropped out showed that Thompson had actually been keeping a lot of votes from McCain).

Just like the leftists, they never stop to reconcile their wild accusations with actual events...they just move on to the next conspiracy.

57 posted on 02/07/2008 8:09:01 PM PST by ellery (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock -T. Jefferson)
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To: cherry
if Romney tries to unseat Kerry, I vow to send money for his campaign...

That's what Romney should do. I don't currently trust him at all, but I am open to changing my mind if I see actual proof via action over time. If he ran for the Senate and won (thus doing us all a service by knocking out Kennedy or Kerry), then hewed consistently to conservative principles for six years, I would gladly admit I was wrong about him.

I don't think that's what he's planning, though. He dropped out because he ran the numbers and saw that he couldn't win...so he exited in a way that would pave the road to 2012 for him.

58 posted on 02/07/2008 8:13:19 PM PST by ellery (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock -T. Jefferson)
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