BOSTON - He wasn’t close enough in the polls to win it, but Mitt Romney says he’s still in
it.
Despite getting smacked around by Republican front-runner John McCain in a slew of Super
Tuesday states, the ex-Massachusetts governor told supporters here last night that he’ll
take his campaign all the way to September’s GOP convention.
“One thing that’s clear is, this campaign’s going on,” Romney said to cheers after winning
his home state’s primary, but faring worse in many other large, delegate-rich battlegrounds.
“I think there’s some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it’s not
all done tonight,” he said. “We’re going to keep on battling. We’re going to go all the way
to the convention, and we’re going to win this thing, and we’re going to go to the White
House.”
Romney, who has poured more than $35 million of his own money into his campaign, has
castigated McCain as too left-leaning to represent the conservative core of the party.
But Mike Huckabee, popular with evangelical Republicans, has blocked Romney from getting the
one-on-one battle with McCain he covets.
In addition to Massachusetts, Romney also won the primary in Utah, a center for those of his
Mormon faith. He also carried the less populated North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and
Colorado.
He wrapped up his night looking to the West, hoping to hit voter gold in California - but
McCain was declared the winner of the Golden State shortly after midnight.
Romney’s day started with equal disappointment in West Virginia, where he ultimately got
hosed when delegates backing McCain at the state convention agreed to swing to Huckabee in
the second round of voting.
Romney had the most commitments coming in, but when McCain’s people saw their man running
third, most switched their allegiance to Huckabee in a coordinated effort to deny Romney the
win.
In his victory speech, McCain tipped his hat to Romney: “He and I have been going at it
pretty hard over the last few weeks and he’s a tough competitor.”
Huckabee, though, salted Romney’s wounds.
“A lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race,” Huckabee told
supporters at his Arkansas victory party. “Well, it is, and we’re in it!”
source:nydailynews