The towel

The US primary contests are never short of no-hopers – can anyone tell me who Duncan Hunter is? But news is made when credible candidates go by the wayside. Many people’s favourite Rudy Giuliani hit the kerb last week (after spending at least $40m and amassing no delegates) and now Mitt the Mormon has apparently ‘suspended’ his campaign.

From the New York Times:

“Speaking before an enthusiastic crowd at the conference, hosted by the American Conservative Union, Mr. Romney said he would have preferred to continue until the Republican convention.

Mr. Romney had hoped to use Tuesday’s results to narrow the gap between him and his chief rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona. Instead, he saw Mr. McCain widen the lead at the same time that Mr. Romney’s campaign lost ground to Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who racked up solid gains.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/us/politics/07cnd-repubs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

A cynic would suggest that Romney realised he was dead man walking after GOP supporters had made it decisively clear that the senator from Arizona was best equipped to defeat the Democrat twin threat that is Clinbama and that even ploughing further of his own millions into his campaign would be futile. A charitable view is that Romney put his party before his own ego. On bowing out, Romney said:

“Because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I have to stand aside for our party and our country.”

Believe that and you’ll believe anything.

Romney cut his losses.