WASHINGTON, DC
Supporters of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney were reduced to tears Thursday when he told a packed auditorium of conservative activists that he was suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
“I now have to stand aside for the good of our party and our country,” Romney said in a speech to the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
“I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” he told thousands of supporters packed into the hotel’s Regency Ballroom.
Saying that continuing his campaign would prevent the party from uniting in opposition to Democrats -- whom he said would “retreat” in Iraq and Afghanistan -- Romney effectively delivered the Republican nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain. Yet Romney did not explicitly endorse Mr. McCain.
The announcement stunned many of Romney’s supporters, especially hundreds of college-age supporters who had been handing out Romney lapel stickers in the hotel lobby just minutes earliers.
“I am incredibly shocked … profoundly saddened,” said Ruth Malhotra, an activist with Evangelicals for Mitt. “I can’t support John McCain. He is not a conservative. … He’s stabbed his party in the back and he’s betrayed the conservative movement.”
Her sentiments were echoed by Orit Sklar of Jews for Mitt. “There’s no way I’m voting for John McCain,” she said.
Romney’s announcement came after a disappointing performance in this week’s Super Tuesday primaries, as McCain won both New York and California, putting him within striking distance of cinching the nomination.
An hour after Romney’s supporters were surprised by his bombshell announcement, the lobby of the Omni Shoreham was full of chanting McCain supporters, as the “maverick” Republican arrived for his own speech to CPAC, an event he purposefully snubbed last year.
(Robert Stacy McCain blogs at The Other McCain.)
