Mittens in Mourning

These past weeks have been bitter for the Romney camp. With the suspension of the campaign, the campaign members are downtrodden, working only to dismantle the operation and retire any debt that may still be in question. Financially, Romney himself is the biggest loser when it comes to campaign donations. When he was still in the race, Romney had mentioned to reporters that he and Ann had “set a limit” on how much of the family money he was willing to spend. Although he wouldn’t name the monetary limit, he had spent $42.3 million of his own money when the campaign drew to a close. Romney and his supporters have been making the best out of the last couple of weeks, trying to make a graceful exit and to throw their support to the winning nominee. On February 15th, Romney decided to put aside the long-standing animosity that existed between himself and rival John McCain and endorsed McCain in his bid for presidency. Although the pair have exchanged bitter insults over the course of the past few months, Romney was full of praise for McCain when he gave his blessing to the senator from Arizona at his former campaign headquarters, remarking “It is time for us to put aside our differences and focus on the places where we think we have common ground.” However, recent rumors of a lobbyist scandal have made Romney question his support for McCain and wonder if he could enter into the fray once again. A senior strategist at the Romney camp noted that if John McCain withdrew from the race because of rumors about an affair with a telecom lobbyist, Romney could actually come back into the race for the nomination because his campaign has been “suspended”, not “ended.” However, this reentry is highly unlikely, especially since many of Romney’s delegates have already pledged their support for McCain. The best Romney can hope for now is the vice presidential slot. However, this seems equally improbable, given the history that exists between McCain and Romney and the fact that Romney is not “conservative enough” to net the voting bloc that McCain is trying to attract.