"If this was only about me, I would continue, but it’s not," he told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters. "I entered this race because I love America. And because I love America I feel that in this time of war I now have to step aside for the good of our country and our party."
He said his suspension from the presidential race would give the Republican Party more time to prepare for the national presidential campaign. It came after Romney was confronted with an unforgiving mathematical landscape of delegate counts, polls, and popular vote tallies that suggested his main rival, Senator John McCain, was far ahead.
With 499 total delegates up for grabs through March 4, Romney would have to win more than 80 percent of them to catch McCain, assuming the Arizona senator won none, analysts said. And, even if the third candidate, Mike Huckabee, won them all, he would still trail McCain.
HUCKABEE CRITICIZED
Evangelical Republicans so far divided their votes nearly evenly between the top three candidates during the caucuses or primary elections on Super Tuesday in 24 states, according to the website of Christianity Today, the leading evangelical journal. Conservative radio talk show hosts have said that Romney would have had a better chance without Huckabee, who ran third and was accused of dividing the conservative vote by refusing to quit the campaign.
Romney seemed to reach out to McCain, despite earlier criticizing his perceived liberal leanings. "There are many things on which we disagree, but not on the war in Iraq" and the fight against terrorism and al-Qaeda "and the execution [of its leader] Osama bin Laden."
Romney said he did not want to stand in the way of a Republican favorite. Otherwise, he added, "the face of liberalism will have a new name…Clinton or Obama." Romney stressed however that he would, "continue to stand for conservative principles." He said, "We can not let the country go to extremism. It is a common task…for God almighty."
There were several reasons why Romney, who spent tens of millions of dollars from his own money on the campaign, failed to win the nomination, media reports sad. His "flip-flop" on a universal health care mandate, which he had introduced in Massachusetts but repudiated nationally, was one commonly cited example.
Conservatives were also suspicious about his changed views on social issues like abortion.
