Mitt Romney’s Swift and Graceful Exit
Despite the burst of support late in the game, the truth is that Mitt Romney's campaign -- for all its superior organization and funding -- never really caught on with conservatives, says Rick Moran. But don't feel too sorry for Mitt: by dropping out now instead of continuing to the convention, he probably saved himself about $75 million.
“We cannot allow the next president of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism,” Mitt Romney declared as he dropped out of the 2008 Republican presidential race.
He made the announcement at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in front of a large crowd of conservative activists and supporters.
Romney cited the war in Iraq and the larger War on Terror as the reason for his withdrawal, saying that if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama won the White House, they would “retreat” from Iraq and create a situation that would leave America open to attack. He said that the party must unite behind Senator McCain as soon as possible in order to prevent Iraq from “making Afghanistan under the Taliban look like a picnic.”
“In this time of war, I feel I now have to stand aside,” Romney said. “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. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”
An aide to Romney told The Corner’s Byron York that the campaign didn’t want to look “destructive” at the end:
Normally in that time period, I would have received lots of emails telling me, among other things, that John McCain’s Straight Talk Express had taken a detour. For example, I would have expected to receive one about McCain’s “calm down” remark. But nothing from the Romney camp. I wondered whether the campaign is dialing back its aggressiveness in preparation for a Romney withdrawal.
A few moments ago, I spoke to someone in the Romney camp. Would I be crazy to read that into the email traffic? “You would not be crazy to read that into it,” he said. “There have been a lot of discussions going on about whether there is a path to victory, and not wanting to look destructive at what might be the end. You are reading the right thing into it.”
PJ Media CEO Roger Simon thinks this may give a boost to Romney’s Vice Presidential prospects.
“Ironically, this will make conservatives happy since Romney isn’t really a conservative, less so than McCain.”
Happy or not, the Romney campaign — for all its superior organization and funding — never caught on with conservatives. Coming from Massachusetts where he governed as a centrist, some of Romney’s positions on core conservative issues like abortion and gay marriage came back to haunt him despite his professed “conversion” to the views of the religious right. There was also the impression among some in the party that Romney pandered to whatever his audiences wanted to hear. This gave some the impression that he had no real core beliefs and was therefore untrustworthy when it came to issues near and dear to conservative hearts.
This may have been an unfair criticism. Romney turned out to be a pretty conventional conservative on everything from the war to fiscal policy. But for some reason, he never generated the kind of excitement and support that would have given his campaign the boost it needed to propel the candidate to the top.
It is unknown how much of his own considerable fortune Romney poured in to the race. Some estimates go as high as $40 million or more. One thing is certain; he has saved himself as much as $75 million by not having to run in the general election. Romney made it known at the beginning of the race that he would spend whatever it took to make himself competitive.
Romney’s withdrawal makes McCain’s nomination a foregone conclusion. And while the candidate stopped short of endorsing McCain, he made it clear he would support the Arizona senator by helping to unite the party behind his candidacy.
In his speech at the CPAC conference, McCain was expected to try and build a bridge to conservatives. He can help that effort by embracing Romney and using the goodwill he has acquired by making such a graceful and magnanimous exit.
Rick Moran blogs at Right Wing Nut House.
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20 Comments
1. AJ:His campaign “never really caught on with conservatives”? Last I checked, all the true conservatives (Dobson, Rush, Ann, Beck, et al) loved this guy. If he is not catching on, will McCain or populist Huckabee?
I was for Mitt, but will support McCain 100% as his national security views, sans closing Gitmo and perhaps torture, are dead on. And Mitt is correct: we NEED to unite to defeat evil—as in Hillary and Obama, who are as dangerous to America as Al Qaeda.
Feb 7, 2008 - 12:17 pm 2. Joey:You know it’s an insult to conservatives to call Ann Coulter a conservative? Ditto for Rush.
They are conservative in name as much as McCain is a Republican in name.
They are neocons, they are republicans, but they are not conservatives, and hopefully from here people will quit listening to them, and conservatives will come back and re-take the republican party.
Feb 7, 2008 - 12:44 pm 3. submandave:There are several things in your analysis that seem a bit off. It has always seemed to me that more than anything the “flip-flop” charge provided a useful cover under which the “good” Christians could reject the Mormon without the ugly spectre of bigotry. Huckabee has, throughout the campaign, seemed to zero in on Romney as a direct competitor. It’s embarassing to admit it, but here in the Bible belt hardly a day went by that someone didn’t call in to the local radio shows with some misgivings about “Mormons aren’t real Christians” or “Mormons believe this” or the repeated drumbeat of “I don’t think a Mormon can get elected.” Now that Romney is out of the picture I predict that we’ll see Huckabee fade out no later than after the next round of primaries.
I’ve always been among the first to hit back at the ridiculous warnings of “theocracy” at the hands of “Christianists”, but I do think that many in the evangelical movement purposefully had their daggers out for Romney purely for religious reasons.
Feb 7, 2008 - 1:38 pm 4. Mark:Thanks for noticing (about two months too late) that all the hype that Romney “wasn’t really conservative” was just that, disingenious flack from other campaigns. He was the best one of the bunch on record. (He didn’t vote for or support McCain Feingold, unlike Fred)
Then I read this: “Ironically, this will make conservatives happy since Romney isn’t really a conservative, less so than McCain.”
That’s an interesting argument considering the amount of un-conservative things McCain HAS done, and just the sort of thing I would expect to hear from an establishment type, not the PJM CEO. Some people just never get it. Romney was the best hope we had for this election.
If McCain really wants to be president than he will ask Romney to be VP (to show he can work with others and ease the fears of the majority of self-identified conservatives who voted FOR ROMNEY, especially throughout the midwest)Romney should agree, but only AFTER he gets McCain to swear off amnesty. That would be a coup that conservatives could respect.
Feb 7, 2008 - 1:39 pm 5. Lucy:Joey, please try to have the slightest clue what you are talking about. You are obviously as informed about the definition of a neocon as the average DailyKos poster. Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are as close to being neocons as Barak Obama. Neocons consider the war against Islamofascism to be our number one priority. That is why most of them support McCain, unlike Rush and Coulter. Stop throwing labels around that you don’t understand.
Feb 7, 2008 - 2:00 pm 6. SSSailor:Who is sleeping with John McCain? Answer; The elephant not in the room.
It would appear that “Moderate Voters” have propelled Senator McCain into the current front runner position for the Republican Party presidential nomination. As the definition of “Moderate” is intrinsically an undefined value in the political sense, I will provide my own interpretation: Not a Republican. Perhaps they cannot be defined as a Democrat either, but they are definitely NOT a Republican. Politics 101 postulates that US Presidents are elected by white males. This is the voter Senator McCain has invited to crawl into his bed. That would be, for the purposes of this discussion, white male moderates.
So, I pose some simple questions: What is the Senator’s motive?
Simple answer: To appeal to the greatest number of sympathetic voters.
Simple question: What is the animas, the individuals unconscious true inner self, that Senator McCain is making an appeal to?
Simple answer: Something really ugly.
When faced with these four choices: a white female, a black male, a white male liberal, and a white male quasi conservative, who did these moderate white male voters choose? A white male, specifically, a white male chauvinist racist!
Feb 7, 2008 - 2:13 pm 7. David Thomson:If this is what the republican Big Tent paradigm amounts to, count me out. I’ll not be a party to this brand of BS. Go ahead John, Bill Kristal, and David Brookes, et al. Knock yourself out. Al , Jesse, and Opra knew ye all along.
“A white male, specifically, a white male chauvinist racist!”
What in hell are you talking about? John McCain adopted a black girl in 1993. His daughter’s name is Bridget, and she was born in Bangladesh.
Feb 7, 2008 - 2:39 pm 8. Banjo:People like SSS Sailor wait for every small opening to snap the race card down on the table. I have recently, after long study, decided that every one who brings racism into an argument is a racist. Therefore, any point they make is invalid and should be ignored.
Feb 7, 2008 - 3:31 pm 9. Alan Grey:Romney essentially tried to buy the republican nomination…consider how much worse he would have done if he had only spent as much as McCain or Huckabee.
As a businessman, whilst he is slick, it is more likely he didn’t like his chances and has saved some money….
Feb 7, 2008 - 3:32 pm 10. Al Fin:Roger Simon may be a great script writer, but he has a tin ear for politics. That seems to be true for Hollywood in general.
Feb 7, 2008 - 3:44 pm 11. sheryl:The Huckabization of the GOP & journalist who cover the GOP and this incessant mentioning of Romney’s money has been a disgrace to political discourse.
The class warfare and religious bigotry that Huckabee has stoked into the GOP primary is pathetic.
Mitt Romney is an intelligent man, a brilliant leader and a class act. I’m proud to have voted for him in California and will vote for him anytime he is on another ballet.
Feb 7, 2008 - 6:33 pm 12. Little Much:depressing
Feb 7, 2008 - 7:44 pm 13. Aaron:Anti-Mormon sentiment was not Mitt’s biggest problem by far. The main thing was that Mitt comes off as slick and non-genuine. His speech last night was smarmy and repellent. I got the sense that his popularity was driven solely by people’s hatred for McCain.
After spending the amount of money he did and only doing as well as he did, I doubt he’ll ever be a real contender for the presidency. He should consider an acting role in a movie where he plays the presidential candidate whose brain has been taken over by a space alien. With his trying-desparately-to-act-like-a-normal-human demeanor, he’d be perfect.
Feb 8, 2008 - 8:18 am 14. sheryl:Oh I should’ve added that people’s obsession with Mitt’s perfect looks (evidenced by Aaron’s post) was also revealed in this GOP primary.
Yes, the stupid, ugly, poor men of the GOP party and in many political journals/blogs came out with a seething vengeance against Mitt Romney.
Envy is a repulsive trait….Aaron and his many brethren should get some clinical help.
Feb 8, 2008 - 1:45 pm 15. Jose Feliciano:“Al , Jesse, and Opra knew ye all along.” ROFLMAO!!!! SSSailor, you kill me!
Feb 8, 2008 - 6:57 pm 16. john Ryan:The Hunter Fred! and now Mitt the consevatives are now so weak that they can not even nominate a guy, never mind elect him
Feb 8, 2008 - 10:56 pm 17. Joey:I’m sorry, but still calling Ann Coulter or Rush a conservative is an insult to conservatives. Both are heavy nanny-staters (even if they use that term derisively on others) and heavily in support of the war.
Ann Coulter herself said “Sorry we have to use your country, Iraqis, but you let Saddam come to power, ha-ha, and we are going to instill democracy in your country”
That’s neocon, and I don’t care for dailykos, sorry!
Feb 9, 2008 - 10:15 pm 18. kimberly:A “graceful” exit it was not. Romney played terror fearmonger in the most reprehensible rightwing fashion by invoking unwarranted angst in the sheep the GOP like to call its “base”. Shameful. And utterly classless.
Feb 10, 2008 - 5:52 am 19. sheryl:Mitt was quite right to take a stab at Obama and Clinton in his eloquent exit speech because it’s true and factual.
Obama and Clinton are pandering to the Daily Kos/Huffingont Post/Media Matter group thinkers who want nothing more than for the US to lose in Iraq @ all costs. That is there stated goal. REad their blogs.
The fact that Obama and Clinton don’t want to fight evil extremism that is using women with Down Syndrome to launch attacks to kill innocent people is pathetic.
It’s pathetic that Obama or Clinton barely mention how strong this threat is…..I guess keeping your electorate stupid wins you votes.
Change sucks when change means losing.
Feb 10, 2008 - 12:34 pm 20. Thomas G. Welsh:I understand why Romney got out and I wish him well. However, it would have been very interesting for both sides to go to brokered conventions.I will not be voting for McCain. I will write-in Romney and concentrate on voting for conservatives on the down-ticket. Screw John McCain and all you Anti-neocons who are posting here. NOT CONSERVATIVES, INDEED!! WHAT FOOLS YOU ARE!!
Feb 10, 2008 - 7:28 pm