Romney suspends presidential campaign
Mitt Romney suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, saying if he continued it would "forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Obama to win."I only hope that Clinton(s) and Obama will pay attention and spend more time running against McCain and less time undercutting each other but I'm not holding my breath. I see an advantage to having the Democratic contest go until April so they will continue to have to attack both of them. At that point a decision need to be made or we run the risk of President John McCain.
"In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. This is not an easy decision. I hate to lose," the former Massachusetts governor said.
"If this were only about me, I'd go on. But it's never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country."
Romney made the announcement Thursday afternoon at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
Romney had won 270 delegates in through the Super Tuesday contests, compared with front-runner John McCain's 680.
Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama saw Romney as a vulnerable candidate that they would rather run against instead of McCain, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley said.
"They were looking at Mitt Romney as pretty doable in the political sense saying, 'This is a guy that has a record that we can really run with' and they ran with it in the Republican Party as you know, saying that he used to be pro-choice, now he's anti-abortion. He has changed his position on stem cells he has changed his position on gay unions, that sort of thing," she said.
