WASHINGTON —John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, suspended his faltering presidential campaign.
"I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Sen. Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
Though Romney took Massachusetts in Tuesday's primary, McCain prevailed in most states, moving closer to the numbers needed to officially win the nomination.
Overall, McCain led with 707 delegates, to 294 for Romney and 195 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination at this summer's convention in St. Paul, Minn.
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Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, greet supporters at a polling station in Nashua, N.H., last month.Paul Bilodeau/The Salem News(Click for larger image)
