US News
Romney reportedly suspends US presidential bid (1st Lead)
Feb 7, 2008, 17:46 GMT
Washington - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decided Thursday to 'suspend' his White House bid, effectively quitting the race, US broadcaster Cable News Network (CNN) reported.
Romney's decision appears to open the way for US Senator John McCain to become the centre-right party's candidate for the November 4 election to replace President George W Bush.
CNN cited unnamed Republican Party sources. One told CNN that Romney, 60, decided to step aside because he wants to avoid a drawn- out fight with McCain.
On the Democratic side, former first lady Hillary Clinton and African-American candidate Barack Obama remain in a tight battle for their party's nomination.
Romney, a millionaire businessman who has hewed to the party's conservative side, fell far behind front-runner McCain in Tuesday's nationwide primaries and caucuses for the Republican nomination.
He would be the latest dropout in the Republican field. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and former actor and US senator Fred Thompson previously abandoned their presidential bids.
In a series of state-by-state preference contests since January, McCain has won 689 delegates to the Republican nominating convention in September, compared to 133 for Romney, according to a New York Times count.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor who appeals to social conservatives, is third in the Republican race. He swept five southern states Tuesday and has vowed to stay in the race.
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Older Talkback
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'Romney, 60, decided to step aside because he wants to avoid a drawn- out fight with McCain.'
That is a man afraid of getting in there and fighting for what he believes in. So, does that mean he is a rubber-band man, who doesn't really believe in anything, not even himself?
Noharness has maintained that he is a liberal. What is he doing praising his supposed political antithesis?
Bye-bye, Flip Flopper Mitt Romney. We hardly knew you -- or your sorry attempts to buy the Presidency!!
osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/breaking-news-mitt-romney-will-bow-out. html#links
This is a good move by Romney. He is right, now is the time for the party to prepare national stategy for the more important battle in Nov. We cannot afford to waste any more time & $$$ on fights within. The sad part though is that Romney is our best hope to carry the banner for us. He has been a champion at drawing in $$$ and we are going to need a huge pile of it to counter the war chest that the democrats will be throwing at us.
RE:'Noharness has maintained that he is a liberal. What is he doing praising his supposed political antithesis?'
I am a liberal, not a leftist.
I don't think he chickened out as much as saw the writing on the wall. McCain was using Huckabee to split the conservative voters into two groups and then take the remainder - which as Tuesday showed was often larger than the split conservatives even though it wasn't a majority of the voters. That's why he told his WV delegates to vote for Huckabee: it was a contest that ended early in the day's news cycle and would motivate the conservatives that hadn't voted yet to reconsider voting for Huckabee. It was probably enough to tip the scales towards Huck in GA and MO since those races were very close between all three men.
Now that Romney is gone, who remains as the exemplar of political Untrustworthiness still running for President? If fairly evaluated, even Hillary does not come close to approaching Romney standards. Everyone else gets at least grudging acceptance for integrity across the political spectrum. The political process at the presidential level seems to be actually working this year for a welcome change.
The only thing Noharness is liberal with is the truth. C'mon Noharness, get a grip on yourself, staighten up and fly right.
Smart move,
I agree with you but would like to point out that there is still a glimmer (however small it may be) of hope that enough people will wake up and reverse course on this trend towards McCain. Romney has only suspended the campaign, not dropped out. So he can still collect delegates. That means we can still vote for him and if enough of us do that in the states that remain then we can send him the message that we need him back to build that war chest that you are concerned about. So Romney supporters hold strong and to all the undecided or Huck supporters out there, please make your vote really count and get behind the one man who is the most viable at the big dance. Mitt Romney can win bring us the $$$ needed to carry the message to the masses and bring victory and change in Nov.
'Romney has only suspended the campaign, not dropped out.
So he can still collect delegates'
You are splitting hairs. He's a dead duck now. Dead in the water.
isn't the only one dead in the water. It sounds like noharness has been outed as a died in the wool republican stooge and general all around weirdo.
I agree that it is highly unlikely to change but there is an important difference between being 'out' vs 'suspended'. We the People still have a say in the outcome but it will probably not change because I know the general perception will be just as you state - that he is out and dead. I just wish enough people would see through it all and press on. Romney is the only candidate with a chance to knock off McCain and is the most viable in the general given the shear volume of $$$ that will be needed to wage that battle. If you are happy with McCain then fine, but if you are not then Romney is the only alternative that makes sense in the big picture.
No, I am not happy with McCain. I am not happy with anybody in the Republican party right now. They all appear to be reactive rather than proactive, a continuation of the status quo. Looking at history, Eisenhower was the last REAL American President. He certainly was the last real Republican. His interests were the country, not his cronies. There is no one now, or in the foreseeable future, that can meet his standard. I am afraid that the party is splintered and bankrupt for real leadership. A leader that can lead the country, not just win an election. There are huge challenges facing the Republic and there is no one to meet them.
RE:'They all appear to be reactive rather than proactive, a continuation of the status quo. Looking at history, Eisenhower was the last REAL American President. He certainly was the last real Republican.'
I will readily agree with you that Eisenhower's focus was on the good of the country and not on the political expediency of the moment. We need another leader like him and we cannot seem to find one in any of our political parties.
I'm listening to McCain speak now. One of his senate colleagues, Tom Coburn, Republican form Oklahoma introduced him. The Goopers are now doing their best to rally the rank and file around John McCain.
We'll see.
McCain is just an old, tired, worn out warhorse. He looks like he's been run hard and put to bed wet. Sorry, but he isn't what the country requires.
I agree with your comment that we are 'bankrupt for real leadership'. I was hoping that Romney could provide that. I was intrigued at the possibility to have someone in office that would have a fighting chance at not being beholden to other interests or concerns other than what is best for this country. All leaders in my lifetime have succumbed to special interests or personal gains in one form or another. I was hoping that Romney's financial independance and his strong personal values & family relationships would keep him well above the temptations that come with the power of the office. Not a sure bet I know but I saw more prospects for good leadership in him than I see in any of the other candidates in either party.
'McCain is just an old, tired, worn out warhorse. He looks like he's been run hard and put to bed wet. Sorry, but he isn't what the country requires.'
Well Ill take that over a wet behind the ears bed-wetter like Obama.
Which leg? Can't do your head, it's already cracked.
RE:'McCain is just an old, tired, worn out warhorse. He looks like he's been run hard and put to bed wet. Sorry, but he isn't what the country requires.'
So we look at alternatives and what do we find? Mike Huckabee? Too much inclined to rely on faith and appears to exercise far too little in the way of forethought in my judgment. I have visited his website and read what he has in mind. I have done the same by the Clintons and John McCain. It is very clear that Mitt Romney is the only one out these five candidates who is capable of thinking in strategic terms and is also truly numerate.
The Clintons are off my list, period. They are running for an unconstitutional third term. Barack Obama? Maybe, but what will he be able to accomplish, really? If you take a hard look at what he has posted on his website, you will discover that he has a rather tenuous relationship with mathematics, a fault he shares with the majority of politicians. Chances are excellent that he would be a one term President who would fall into about the same category of fame as Jimmy Carter.
There is, of course, the ongoing war with Militant Islam. Both Obama and the Clintons promise a retreat from this conflict. I suspect that the Clintons are lying about their intentions, but that is just a guess and I cannot bring myself to vote for them in any case. Voting for them would be a violation of the Constitution. I seriously doubt that Obama is kidding anyone about his intentions in this regard and I believe he will make good on his threat. This would not be as bad as it sounds, in my judgment, provided he was championing a workable energy policy. Unfortunately, he is not championing such a policy.
If John McCain as an energy policy, he has only mentioned it in one or two of his speeches and then only briefly. I have not found anything on his website that declares what his thinking really is on this vital subject. Given that a workable energy policy is central to any strategy genuinely useful against Militant Islam, I find this shortcoming alarming. Senator McCain shows himself to be long on tactics and short on strategy--about what you would expect from a fighter jock.
A President McCain will very likely find himself pitted against Senator Harry Reid and Speaker Pelosi in our legislature. Neither of these worthies can see fit to defend us against Militant Islam, beyond paying lip service to the cause, and I worry what they would extract from a President McCain in exchange for supporting our efforts against this threat.
On the face of it, John McCain is not what we need, but what we have. I'm not convinced that what we have will do. It might be better to allow the leftists to shoot themselves in the foot or, better yet, let the Militant Islamists to shoot them in th foot. We will take casualties, of course, but we might take fewer casualties on that rout.
'shows himself to be long on tactics and short on strategy--about what you would expect from a fighter jock.'
McCain flew A-4's. These were single engined ground attack aircraft. He was a mud mover, not a 'top gun,' and definitely not 'a fighter jock.' It doesn't take brains to hit the ground with an iron bomb. Just push a button. He also graduated 5th from the bottom of his class at the Navy flight school. 'He was a below average student and a lousy pilot.' He flew only 23 missions before he gave his Skyhawk to the North Vietnamese. 'For 23 combat missions (an estimated 20 hours over enemy territory), the U.S. Navy awarded McCain a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service medals.' Make that 22-1/2 missions. He pooched the last one. That is one heck of a lot of chest cabbage for a f-up. It denegrates the value to those who desevedly earned them. It must have been his father, an Admiral, that got him that stuff. By the way, the good Admiral also 'graduated' near the bottom of his class. The whole family isn't known for their braisn. McCain, the flyboy, also lost 5 aircraft in his short career. Expensive toys for a playboy. Toys paid for by the tax payers. This clipped wing idiot did more damage to the Navy than his enemies did.
Yes vote for McCain, if you want another made-up man. This man is no hero, he's as phoney a warrior as is G.W Bush.
has never commanded a unit. McCain has never led men. He is not now and never has been a leader. He can't control his own staff. I would be very surprised if he can control his own bowels, at his age.
I suspect that the Navy feels that it owes the McCain family a little consideration. Senator McCain's grandfather worked himself to death while serving under Bull Halsey.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._McCain%2C_Sr.
Check out the article and you will understand that I have exaggerated nothing.
So effing what.
Honor the man, the elder McCain, that is. Honor, like respect is not transferable. It is something that is earned, not demanded or given. The offspring of this man have to make their own way and not ride on grand-daddy's bier. The argument stands - The younger McCain has not earned honor, respect or my vote. He has done nothing to prove that he is a leader.
Therefore, what you suspect plus ten cents will buy a phone call.
McCain was transfered to flying missions over North Vietnam after dropping too many bombs on his own ground troops. The Navy felt that he would do his own side less damage there and if he bought a package over Hanoi, then so much the better. McCain's being in the Hanoi Hilton saved many American lives.
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NoharnessFeb 7th, 2008 - 18:11:17
Mitt Romney just gave one of the most inspirational speeches I have ever heard. Had he given speeches like this one from the beginning of his campaign, he would have had my support from day one.
Now let's see how Senator McCain responds.
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