Horserace
By

Brian Montopoli /

CNET/ February 6, 2008, 1:21 PM

Following Disappointing Super Tuesday, Romney Considers His Options

After a Super Tuesday that put him significantly behind John McCain in the delegate count, Mitt Romney and his advisors are reportedly assessing their options today.

The Romney campaign had planned to advertise in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore markets in advance of the upcoming contests in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia next Tuesday, CNN reports. Now, the campaign is considering whether or not to move forward.

"As of early this AM it was a go," a campaign source told CNN, though an advisor admitted that "it is tough to saddle up" this morning.

After his Jan. 29th loss to McCain in Florida, Romney briefly considered not buying ads in Super Tuesday states, though he ultimately decided to do so. Electing not to advertise would have been a tacit admission that he believed his campaign, into which he has invested more than $35 million of his own money, had become a lost cause.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that the McCain campaign is arguing that Romney's bid is indeed a lost cause. In a memo, McCain strategist Charlie Black suggests "the math is nearly impossible for Mitt Romney to win the nomination."

"The remaining contests account for roughly 963 delegates," Black writes. "For Mitt Romney to match our delegate [count], he would have to win more than 50% of those delegates." Black also notes that because many upcoming contests reward delegates proportionately, not on a winner-take-all basis, "Mitt will have to win by big margins in many states to garner every last delegate."

CBS News estimates that McCain presently has 677 delegates to Mike Huckabee's 159 and Romney's 152. 1,191 delegates are necessary to clinch the GOP nomination.

As the results came in last night, Romney vowed to continue his campaign.

"I think there's some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it's not all done tonight," Romney said. "We're gonna keep on battling. We're gonna go all the way to the convention. We're gonna win this thing, and we're gonna get in the White House."
© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
6 Comments Add a Comment
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metal2pedal says:
Great job Huckabee. The media tricked us into thinking you were done 2 weeks ago, and that the only 2 choices we had were Romney and Mccain.

My mom got robo called and her call was Romney saying there were only 2 choices left in the Republican race. Him and Mccain, implying Paul and Huckabee dropped out already.

We all feel like we were lied to and it''s too late to get my moms vote back.

I will vote for Huckabee now.

I urge others to switch to Huckabee as well.

Here is a link someone posted that showed the robo calls.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk6IJS3QN34
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giantrobot2 says:
Mitt Romney should drop out of the race.

He says he knows how to run a business, well if that were true then he should fire himself. Romney has used up more than $70 million in American voter''s donations and has little to show for it. His product is a flop, too expensive and not selling.

On the other hand, Huckabee''s product is very inexpensive and selling just as well or better. Now come on, which product would you buy?

Romney product = $70 dollars for a widget that yields 293 delegates = $0.23 cents per widget
Huckabee product = $2 dollars for a widget that yields 190 delegates = $0.01 cent per widget

Huckabee''s product cost 1 cent per widget compared to Romney''s product at 23 cents per widget which calcuates out to the same performance of the product (division of delegates won so far). Any one in their right mind would buy the widget that costs 1 cent if it performs exactly the same as the widget that costs 23 cents.

The business formula that Romney says he is good at proves that he should drop out of the race. He is wasting tons of money. If he can''t run a campaign finacially sucessfully how in the world will he run a huge American government successfully???

Romney is losing money as fast has Enron did with social security of it''s employee''s.

Huckabee is a true leader, someone who wants to share the power with all Americans, not show his prideful power like Romney does.

Vote for true conservative Mike Huckabee!

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gsonjagnath says:
The Liberal conspiracy has succeeded. Liberal Mitt has donned the Conservative mask and split the ranks with his Big money. With Liberal Mac at the door of nomination, it is really gloomy for GOP.
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gsonjagnath says:
Mitt has done his final act. He enabled the liberal Mac to beat the true conservative Huck. Had he dropped before super tuesday, huck would have finished Mac in South. OK, MO should have been won by Huck.
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conspiracygirl says:
I''ll be voting for the Dem because the Dems are honest about what they are. They are self-avowed liberals and don''t claim to be othewise.

Both of them have excellent education backgrounds, whereas McCain came in at the bottom of his class. Obama is even a decent human being, whereas McCain has few redeeming qualities. McCain is boorish, rude, has anger issues, is out-of-control, he''s an adulterer, a philanderer, has poor table manners, and a history of betraying his comrades in Vietnam.
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conspiracygirl says:
I won''t reward the Republican party for devolving to the left. If McCain gets the nomination, I''ll be voting for Obama.

There is absolutely NO FOUNDATION to the belief that McCain would appoint conservative judges. From what past action would you make that assertion...?

McCain does what is is in his OWN interests.
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