Romney Would Take VP Slot if Offered

Mitt Romney says that he'd be honored to serve if John McCain asked him to run as his vice president. Mitt Romney said in his first interview since departing the GOP race that he would accept the number two position on the ticket and that there is no lingering bitterness between him and John McCain. “I think any Republican leader in ...

Romney Endorses McCain

Mitt Romney is formally endorsing John McCain this afternoon, releasing his delegates to him. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., is planning on endorsing his former Republican rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. A source familiar with the decision said the endorsement will take place this afternoon at Romney for President headquarters in Boston at 3:30pmET. Romney will ask his delegates to ...

John McCain’s Vice Presidential Not-So-Short List

John Hawkins lists 24 candidates that John McCain might conceivably pick as his running mate with synopses as to the pros and cons of each. I'm rather sure the eventual choice is on that list, as there's nobody that I've heard of who isn't. Indeed, there are several people I haven't heard of on it. Frankly, the available ...

Mitt Romney Campaign Postmortem

The collapse of Mitt Romney's bid for the presidency brings the inevitable question: What went wrong? Michael Luo gives a pretty good explanation. If Mr. Romney’s campaign were condensed to one of his trademark PowerPoint presentations, it would have had all the bullet points foretelling success: a multimillionaire candidate willing to relinquish his fortune to run, an unsettled Republican ...

Mitt Romney Quits Race at CPAC (Updated)

Just got signed in at CPAC and the big news is that Mitt Romney is dropping out of the race. He's using his speech here to announce his withdrawal. His spokesman, Kevin Madden, has confirmed the rumor. Laura Ingraham is introducing him now, using the speech to bash McCain. One wonders if all of CPAC will be ...

Mitt Romney Quitting?

CNN's John King and Dana Bash suggest that Mitt Romney may be ready to drop his White House bid. Mitt Romney and top aides and advisers plan to huddle Wednesday to discuss the future of his campaign, including whether to launch an advertising buy in upcoming primary states. Romney vowed late Tuesday to press on, though top advisers acknowledged the ...

Kryptoniting Superdelegates

I have to disagree with my colleague Dave Schuler on the importance of superdelegates in this election. I don't think that they'll be much of a factor in either race. Let's look at the Democrats first. It's important to remember that although right now it appears that Clinton has more superdelegates than Obama, those pledges aren't worth a Confederate ...

Super Tuesday Postmortem (Updated)

As I write this, a bit after 6 am, we don't know the results of all the Super Tuesday states. What we do know if that Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee did much better than expected but that Hillary Clinton and John McCain strengthened their perception as frontrunners by winning California and New York, the biggest prizes of the ...

Huckabee Wins West Virginia Caucus

Mike Huckabee has won the West Virginia Caucus. Republican Mike Huckabee scored the first Super Tuesday victory, winning all 18 delegates at stake in West Virginia. The former Arkansas governor won with the support of 52 percent of the state's GOP convention delegates on the second round of balloting. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came in second with 47 percent of ...

Super Tuesday Predictions

After months of states racing to move their primary up to February 5th, the first day allowed for states not named "Iowa" or "New Hampshire," Super Tuesday -- or Super Duper Tuesday or Super-Duper-Mega-Jumbo Tuesday or whatever nickname one wants to call it -- is finally upon us. While this has indeed been "long primary season," given ...

The Ever Changing Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney has reinvented himself yet again, Michael Luo reports, this time as an anti-insider populist. Mitt Romney is leading a citizen revolution, or at least that is what he has been telling people these last few days as he has tries to right his bid for the Republican nomination. It may seem an unlikely role for a PowerPoint-loving, buttoned-down multimillionaire, ...

A Quick Super Tuesday Prediction

I assume that James will have a longer, better reasoned post on this subject up later tonight or tomorrow. However, since I'll be working tomorrow as an election judge as I have for the last twenty years or so, I won't have the time to tack my predictions about the outcomes of tomorrow's primaries to the end of his ...

California Tightening, Routs Everywhere Else

The polls show John McCain and Hillary Clinton running through tomorrow's Super Tuesday primaries and consolidating their frontrunner status. The notable exception is California, where both are seeing longstanding leads slip away. CNN's Paul Steinhauser notes, though, that the national polls give Clinton much more cause for concern. Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton is losing ground to Sen. Barack Obama in a ...

The Conservative Minority

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse on the issue, but the continued high pitched battle between conservative Republicans who have rallied around conservative-come-lately Mitt Romney in hopes of defeating Teddy Kennedy's Good Friend John McCain remains the most interesting story this election cycle. Conservatives Love Romney The most recent Rasmussen poll shows that "Romney leads by sixteen percentage points ...

Romney Not Buying Super Tuesday Ads?

Various reports have Mitt Romney not buying any television time in the Super Tuesday states and Mitt Romney buying like crazy in the Super Tuesday states, especially California. Presumably, we'll know soon enough as it's hard to hide television ad buys. There seems to be a consensus, though, that John McCain will rely mostly on free media and marshal ...