At this afternoon's CPAC convention in D.C., Mitt Romney will be announcing that he is suspending his campaign, effectively pulling out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
FOX News reports that he will read from this prepared statement:
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 (Hillary) Clinton or (Barack) Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. ...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 continued. “I will continue to stand for conservative principles; I will fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of those things is that we cannot allow the next President of the United States to retreat in the face evil extremism.
These are stirring and inspiring words. I have never had this response to anything that I have heard Mitt Romney say. He has never been a candidate known for speaking fiercely and from the heart about our nation's enemies. If he had been speaking this way for the last six weeks or more, it might have been John McCain pulling out today, and not Mitt Romney.
By the way, Michael Barone ("Open-Field Politics," Wall Street Journal, Feb. 7, 2008) has an illuminating summary of the campaign strategies thus far, how they have failed, and why electorate is proving to be so unpredictable. "The fact that every campaign's experts came up with losing strategies suggests that, in this year's open-field politics, all the old rules may be broken. It's been a wild ride in the 35 days since the Iowa caucuses, and it may be even wilder in the 271 days until the polls open in November."
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