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 support McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The former governor made his decision to endorse today in the interest of helping McCain gain the 1,191 delegates he needs to secure the party nomination and unite the party for the general election against the Democrats in November.
For all practical purposes, Romney endorsed McCain when he withdrew from the race a week ago at CPAC “for our party and for our country” and saying,
I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. 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.
I suppose making it official has some value, however. Indeed, theoretically at least, this would seem to end the race: Romney’s delegates plus McCain’s is just a few short of being enough to nominate (812+286=1098; nomination requires 1191). My guess is that Mike Huckabee keeps plugging away, though.
Photo credit: CBS News
UPDATE: Video added:
RCP has some interesting speculation that what Huckabee is on about now is getting more votes/delegates than Romney so he can position himself as the GOP runner up in a future election. So Mitt’s move is meant to thwart that so Mitt can be the runner up.