McCain seals GOP nomination as Romney suspends campaign

WASHINGTON – John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his \nfaltering campaign. \n“I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,” Romney said in a speech Thursday. \n“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,” Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference \nin Washington.\nRomney’s decision leaves McCain as the top man standing in the GOP race, with Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul far behind in the delegate hunt. It was a remarkable turnaround for McCain, who some seven months ago was barely viable, out of cash and losing staff. The four-term Arizona senator, denied his party’s nomination in 2000, was poised to succeed George W. Bush as the GOP standard-bearer.\nRomney launched his campaign almost a year ago in his native Michigan. The former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist invested more than $40 million of his own money into the race, counted on early wins in Iowa and New Hampshire that never materialized and won just seven states on Super Tuesday, mostly small caucus states.\nMcCain took the big prizes of New York and California.\n“This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters ... many of you right here in this room ... have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming president. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America,” Romney said.\nThere were shouts of astonishment, with some moans and others yelling, “No, No.”\nRomney responded, “You guys are great.”\nMcCain prevailed in most of the Super Tuesday states, moving closer to the numbers needed to officially win the nomination. Overall, McCain led with 707 delegates, to 294 for Romney and 195 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination at this summer’s convention in St. Paul, Minn.\nBy suspending his campaign, Romney holds onto his delegates, at least until the party convention this summer.\nRomney claimed he was the true conservative in the race while McCain has been criticized by some on the right. McCain acknowledged the \nrocky relationship.\n“I am acutely aware that I cannot succeed in that endeavor, nor can our party prevail over the challenge we will face from either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, without the support of dedicated conservatives,” McCain said in prepared remarks to the same conference.\nRomney acknowledged the obstacles to beating McCain.\n“As of today, more than 4 million people have given me their vote for president, that’s of course, less than Senator McCain’s 4.7 million, but quite a statement nonetheless. Eleven states have given me their nod, compared to his 13. Of course, because size does matter, he’s doing quite a bit better with the number of delegates he’s got,” Romney said.\nRomney’s departure from the race came almost a year after his formal entrance, when the Michigan native declared his candidacy on Feb. 12, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation in Dearborn, Mich.