“The Conservatives’ Conservative” |
Some great parting thoughts over at www.mymanmitt.com - hope they don’t mind if I share them here:
Blogger Mike:
Rush Limbaugh has been saying for several years now that there has been no leader of the Conservative Movement…
Today that changed. Laura Ingraham said on the Bill O’Reilly show this evening that after the speech today she was in a short gathering of high level conservative leaders, all with long faces, who were talking with Mitt. The tone of the meeting seemed to be that conservative support should have coalesced earlier, and there seemed to be some embarrassment that it had not. The clear understanding, albeit unspoken, however, was that Mitt left that room today as the leader of that important group.
He spoke at CPAC 2007 as something of an outsider, and had a long road to travel to overcome all of the obstacles that lay before him, a change in a position or two, his religion, his wealth (I still can’t believe that one!), his too-perfect image. In the end, getting elected this year was simply a bridge too far. If CPAC 2007 marked his launch as a conservative presidential candidate, CPAC 2008 clearly marks the beginning of a new era of leadership for conservatives, with a leader around whom thinking conservatives will be able to unite.This development is confirmed by even the most casual analysis of exit polls. Thinking conservatives across the country voted for Mitt, and they will again.”
Blogger Kyle:
Hugh Hewitt: Governor Romney is an incredibly gifted man –intelligent in the way very few people are, charismatic, and blessed with an amiable openness and determined, strong character.
He is a good man, and his very successful run towards the presidency is a testament to his talents. His magnificent family represents an achievement in the private sphere that he shares with Ann Romney and which was reflected in his accomplishments in business, at the Olympics and in Massachusetts.
Because he is a very good man, a great conservative and an extraordinary patriot he is standing aside to allow Senator McCain’s national campaign to commence.
Captain’s Quarters: Mitt made the right decision, and he made the announcement in the right place. He’s a good man, and I think this will allow the Republicans a lot more time to find accommodation with John McCain.
Jim Geraghty: And he may have saved some of his best campaign moments for last. “[Dependency] is a drug, we have to fight it like the poison it is.” That got him a Standing O. If you’re gonna leave the race, this is the way to do it.
Allahpundit: In which Mitt himself answers the question posed recently by InstaGlenn about whether Romney 2008 = Reagan 1976. What’s the best thing about this? The goodwill it’ll earn him among the party establishment for not dragging out the primary? The fond memory it creates in the mind of the base of a man willing to sacrifice his own ambition to support victory in Iraq? The venom it’ll draw from the left about him using the war as political cover for his own failure? Or the fact that it backs Huckabee into a corner by framing the continuation of his own campaign as effectively furthering the Democrats’ plans for withdrawal?
Stephen Hayes: Mitt Romney withdrew from the race for the Republican nomination early this afternoon in an extraordinarily classy speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference…For those of us who raised questions about Romney’s leadership on Iraq and his willingness to put winning there ahead of his political career, he answered those questions rather decisively this afternoon.
Mark Hemmingway: And with that speech, the good will he’s engendered by his classy exit, and the support he enjoys from the conservative base, I think it’s safe to say he may have finally laid many of the questions about his conservative credentials to rest. Too bad the timing is so unfortunate.
Krempasky at Redstate: And from now on, I will not be anymore critical than Mitt Romney, who ended his campaign a few hours ago with class far too rare in this campaign to date.
And from the Boston Globe:
Although Mitt Romney abruptly pulled the plug on his 2008 presidential ambitions yesterday, his appearance before a national conservative gathering clearly signaled that he wants to be part of the Republican Party’s future.
“His speech made it clear that he is keeping his options open in terms of assuming some future role in the years to come,” said Rob Gray, a Massachusetts Republican strategist who advised George W. Bush on his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.
Analysts yesterday said that the former Massachusetts governor’s success in establishing himself as a serious presidential contender has given him a foundation to build upon. Romney’s impassioned speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he announced he was leaving the campaign trail, left little doubt that he will stick around…
I think there’ll be a lot of us sticking around as well.
