Mitt Romney has quit the race. It seems that his money was no good here.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Romney announced he was suspending his campaign. In a fiery speech, he took shots at France, Harvard, and liberal judges. Citing pornography and “government welfare,” he thundered that the “threat to our culture” comes “from within.” Hailing family values and decrying gay marriage, this past supporter of abortion rights and gay rights positioned himself as one of the GOP’s leading culture warriors. He called for tax cuts, deregulation, and tort reform. He denounced Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s positions on Iraq as a “surrender to terror.” And he called for beefing up the U.S. military to deal with “radical jihad” and the China challenge. In other words, he reminded the cheering crowd of conservative die-hards at CPAC that he’s a full-throttle conservative on all fronts: culture, economics, and national security. He’s now 60 years old. In four years, he will be seven years younger than John McCain is today. And remember this: Ronald Reagan failed to win the GOP nomination in 1976 before he nabbed it in 1980. And there’s this: if John McCain does manage to win in November, could he run for a second term, given his age?
Romney’s message to the conservatives today was this: I’m your Reagan. He and they may just have to wait a few more years before those pesky Republican primary voters get it.
One key question now is, what will Mike Huckabee do? Recently, he’s become the anti-Romney spoiler–sweeping up non-McCain voters and preventing Romney from becoming a competitive alternative to McCain. It seemed that Huckabee and McCain had an implicit–if not explicit–nonaggression pact, and this has even fueled talk of a Mack-Huck ticket. So with no need any longer for him to block Romney to help McCain, what’s Huckabee’s role in the race? With his get-Romney mission accomplished, will he withdraw and wait for his reward?
