Mitt Romney shuts it down

Governor, CEO, savior of the Salt Lake City Olympics, Mitt Romney can now add failed Presidential candidate to his already impressive resume. Romney made the announcement today before he was scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Romney cited the need to unite against the Democrats as his reason for dropping out, saying

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,"

Classic Mitt. Turning his concession speech into an attack ad against the Democrats, now that is efficiency! It is that kind of business acumen that allowed him to turn the mere $90,000,000 he raised into nearly 300 delegates, along with shocking victories in Utah, Michigan, and Massachusetts. He was even shrewd enough to tap his own fortune for $35,000,000, obviously a strategic maneuver for.... tax purposes, yeah, thats why he did it.


There is no shortage of blame to go around for Mitt's failure.

• The rise of Huckabee drained off social conservatives that might have made the difference in several states.
• He could never shake the flip-flopper label, even having to endure a humiliating segment on Meet The Press where Tim Russert brandished actual flip-flops while reciting Mitt's many position changes.
• Conservatives were largely split between Thompson and Romney, even after Thompson dropped out, their support of Romney seemed half-hearted, more rooted in hatred for McCain than enthusiasm for Mitt.
• He spent incredible amounts of money in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to lose both badly. This gave Huckabee an opening and allowed McCain to come back from the dead.

The real killer of Mitt's campaign was ultimately Mitt himself. Something about him just turned people off. Despite his clean-cut image and lack of obvious scandals, he couldn't get the base to rally around him, even in the absence of a clear front-runner. Watching him in the debates, he was at once arrogant and condescending. He used his business experience as a shield against criticism, but even in the Republican party, people had trouble rooting for the rich guy. Most of the other candidates had their own fallback positions, Giuliani had 9/11, McCain his military experience, and Huckabee his faith. These are all sacred cows, impossible to go after without being demonized, but Bain Capital isn't NYC, the Olympics aren't Vietnam, and Staples, unfortunately for Mitt, does not equal Jesus.

This presents an interesting dilemma for his supporters, while many of them will bite the bullet and switch to McCain, many more are anyone-but-McCain people, and it is unknown where they go from here. They have many of the same reservations about Huckabee, and considering the animosity between Romney and Huckabee, I don't think he can expect much of a bump from this. It will be interesting to see if Ron Paul picks up any of these anti-McCain votes, he is the only remaining candidate who is strong on taxes, immigration, and social issues, which may trump his anti-war stance for some people.

Mitt Romney proved that even American voters have a limit in the amount of phoniness and slickness they will tolerate in a candidate. Despite the blessing of talk radio, limitless funds, a squeaky clean personal life, and a glowing resume, Romney just couldn't close the deal. He has not yet announced his current plans, but it is believed he will likely go into the shop for a temporary shutdown, and much needed refurbishing.