Romney isn't giving up race despite Super Tuesday losses
Romney is scheduled to speak today at the Conservative Political Action Committee convention in Washington, D.C., then address a Republican fundraiser in Maryland, which holds its GOP primary Tuesday.
He was said to be meeting Wednesday with family and advisers about his political future and reportedly considered but dismissed the idea of announcing he was leaving the race at the CPAC convention.
However, after he won fewer states — and far fewer delegates — than McCain on Super Tuesday, political observers are giving Romney little chance of becoming his party's nominee, especially now that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is attracting more of the same conservative voters that Romney has been courting. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, ran strong in Southern states on Tuesday.
Romney told supporters Tuesday night that he wasn't giving up.
"We're going to keep on battling," he said. "We're going to go all the way to the convention. We're going to win this thing, and we're going to get to the White House."
"This is the greatest resurrection since Lazarus. Six months ago, this guy was given up for dead," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in Nashville.
"It seems impossible that one of the other candidates would overtake McCain," Land said, even though there are still delegates up for grabs this month in Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland and later in Texas and other states.
Land, who has not endorsed a presidential candidate, said Romney was hurt more by his shifting political stands than his religion. Romney is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith many evangelicals don't consider Christian.
Matthew Wilson, a professor specializing in religion and politics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, agreed. "The problem Mitt Romney had all along was with authenticity," Wilson said, noting voters saw him as "a little bit too slick and polished."
Wilson said it was Huckabee, not Romney, who emerged from Super Tuesday as the main challenger to McCain. Although he said Huckabee also has no chance to win the GOP nomination, he's shown he can campaign effectively with very little money.
Recent comments
When thieves fall out--Now, let Huck and Chuck worry about what Romney...
Tje Aftermath | Feb. 7, 2008 at 3:19 p.m.
Meaning Mitt is out of the race which I am truly sorry. Me and my...
SAD | Feb. 7, 2008 at 1:01 p.m.
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