McCain Emerges as G.O.P. Choice
WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain all but captured the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday after Mitt Romney withdrew from the race, saying the war in Iraq and the terrorist threat made it imperative that the party unite.
In a dramatic announcement before a convention of stunned and largely unhappy conservatives, Mr. Romney said that he wanted to fight on but that taking his campaign all the way to the Republican convention in September would delay a national campaign against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Barack Obama, the two remaining Democratic contenders. Mr. Romney described both as weak on national security.
“They would retreat, declare defeat, and the consequences of that would be devastating,” Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, told a crowd that broke into chants of “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt.”
Staying in the race, he said, “would make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.”
Mr. Romney, who spent tens of millions of dollars of his fortune on the race, added, “Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding the surrender to terror.”
Mr. McCain stepped forward two hours later before the same gathering to try to make peace with a group deeply skeptical of him, if not outright hostile. In a moment that will long be remembered by Republicans, he was greeted with jeers as well as cheers.
1 comment:
I feel Romney is wrong on Obamba and Clinton on being weak on national security,they are going to surprise a lot of those republicans when one of them get in for the presidentcy...Romney doen't know what he is talking about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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