Byron York at The Corner:
We are beginning to see signs that Mitt Romney might be preparing to pull out of the Republican race.
…
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.”
Byron has better tentacles into the GOP campaigns than anyone at NRO save Jim Geraghty, so this cheers me mildly. Should Geraghty confirm it, I’m going to run to Kroger and get me a case of Icehouse for tonight’s “Bye-bye Mitt” celebration.
I’ll need it to get through Hewitt’s epitaph for the Romney campaign.
Update: Oh, who am I kidding. I’m going to Kroger for beer regardless.
Update II: OK, I’ve got to see if he actually does it at CPAC. If you care to watch, the CSPAN feed is here. Romney’s up at 12:30PM. Gah, never mind…the CSPAN feed is horrible, even over a T-3 line.
Update III: And he’s out. That BANG you just heard? Hewitt’s head exploding.
By the way, what’s up with these candidates swearing to continue on to the convention, then dropping the hell out of the race in the next day or two? Romney’s ending his campaign exactly the way John Edwards did.
Then again, he ran it exactly the way Edwards did, so it’s fitting, I suppose.
Update IV: Priceless.
Filed under: Election 2008, Mitt Romney, Politics, Republicans
I guess I can probably pick up one of those nifty foam “mitts” on E-bay pretty cheap now.
Bye, Mitt. As a Dem, I was always kind of hoping we’d get a crack at you. But it turns out that too many Republican primary voters have working b.s. detectors.
CNN is reporting that 3 GOP insiders are saying Romney to suspend his campaign. They are expecting the announcement any minute.
Hewitt: “Both Romney and Huckabee have said they are staying in, and that’s good news for the GOP.”
Yeah, Hugh. So, is this bad news for the GOP? Why would Mitt hurt his party like that?
Oh, believe me twc: Hewitt is *convinced* that Romney dropping out is bad news for the GOP.
That was a powerful speech, I thought.
Wish I could have seen it, Red. The CSPAN feed sucked. From the excerpts I’ve seen, his stated reasoning for dropping out was that by continuing, he would be contributing to a surrender in the war on terror by weakening McCain against the eventual Democratic nominee. That’s sort of at odds, I think, with the campaign he ran…he didn’t place much emphasis on the war at all, in any of his various incarnations.
I don’t think politics or circumstances will allow either Clinton or Obama to abandon Iraq, but that speech will certainly ring bells with Republicans. He probably helped McCain quite a bit with it.
Ah. Found the transcript here.. Very, very rightwing stuff, eh? Defend marriage, lower taxes, Iraq, the Taliban. I agree with you, Red, in the context and the venue that speech was given in, it was powerful.
I just saw the news a few minutes ago and had to come running over here knowing there’d be a post about it.
Like Bruce Willis at the end of Last Boy Scout, I feel a jig coming on.
Good speech, though.
Why, whatever gave you the idea there’d be a post here about it, brogarn my friend? :-)
PS – You have wonderful taste in films. I shall forever treasure The Last Boy Scout for Halle Berry’s short, but unforgettable scene.
How will Mitt’s boys serve the country now?
You don’t suppose…?
brogarn:
boy, Hillary better not use that line or there will be PC trouble!!!!!11eleven