Friday, February 8, 2007
Primary Progress
• On Feb. 7, Mitt Romney announced that he would be withdrawing from
the presidential race. This announcement came after a bad showing for
Romney on Super Tuesday that saw John McCain pull further into the lead
while Mike Huckabee gained considerable ground.
Romney made the announcment in Washington at the Conservative
Political Action Conference in Washington, and said that he was dropping
out so that he ccald help to unify the Republican party.
“Because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I have to stand aside
for our party and our country,” Romney said.
During his speech, Romney stated that he agreed with McCain’s opinion
that the United States needed to continue the war in Iraq until victory is
achieved, but did not officially endorse any candidates.
Romney said that he wanted to continue his campaign until the
Republican Convention in September, but said, “I’d forestall the launch of
a national campaign and frankly, I’d make it easier for Senator Clinton or
Obama to win."
Romney allegedly was running out of campaign funds and was signing
personal checks to further his campaign in the last few weeks of his can-
didacy.
Of the three candidates, it was estimated that Huckabee would be the one
forced to drop out after Super Tuesday, so Romneys withdrawal came as
a surprise to many.
Romney won seven of the 21 states that held GOP primaries on Super
Tuesday.
• John McCain was the big winner for the Republicans on Super Tuesday,
capturing victories in nine states. He won Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey. Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona and California.
These delegate-rich state victories put McCain into place as the front run
ner for the GOP nomination, and with only Mike Huckabee left to chal
lenge him, it may not be long before McCain wraps up his position as the
Republican nominee.
McCain currently has 689 delegate votes while Huckabee has only 156.
• Barack Obama won the most states for the Democratic party on Super
Tuesday with 13. He gained victories in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia,
Alabama. Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado,
Utah, Idaho and Alaska. Despite his victories, he has not pulled complete
ly away from Hillary Clinton, and the race could go on until the
Democratic Convention in August.
• Hillary Clinton won nine states on Super Tuesday (Massachusetts, New
York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, California
and American Samoa). Her victory in California was especially signifi
cant since it has the largest amount of Democratic delegates of any state.
She currently has more delegate votes than Obama with 892. Obama has
716.
• Democratic Chairman Howard Dean would like to avoid the extension
of the fight for the nomination to the Democratic convention. He said that,
“I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or
April, but if we don’t, then we’re going to have to get the candidates
together and make some kind of an arrangement.
“ I don’t think we can afford to have a brokered convention,” he said.
“That would not be good news for either party.”
• Republican candidate Mike Huckabee won five states on Super
Tuesday (Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Huckabee’s status as a pastor has helped him gain significant ground in the
southern “Bible Belt,” where he has won many states. As of now,
Huckabee does not stand much of a chance at catching John McCain, but
plans to stay in the race for as long as his campaign funds will allow.
• Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell announced his endorsement of
Hillary Clinton last week
rural tt l:
Running mates may sway voters
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could become running mates in the 2008 election
Scott Muska
managing editor
srmsoK2(» psu.ei.lii
ith Mitt Romney ending his campaign
Wand Mike Huekabee more than likely
soon to follow, it's become nearly a fool
proof truth that John McCain will be the presiden
tial nominee for the Republican parly. He will
square off with either Hillary Clinton or Barack
Obama, who have been alone in the Democratic
race for over a week.
Democratic chairman. How aril Dean, expressed
hopes that Clinton and Obama will haw ended their
fight for the nomination before the Democratic con
vention in August, and if that happens their will be
only one nominee from each party left w ith a realis
tic shot at winning the presidency at least three
months before the elections take place.
This brings into play the question of who the run
ning mates of these finalists will be. The decision
of the nominees could very easily have a drastic
effect on the amount of votes they receive in
November.
On the conservative side of the spectrum, it s safe
now to assume that McCain will be deciding on a
potential vice president to run with him after he
becomes the lone nominee. One of his senior advis
ers told CNN that he had called Mitt Romney soon
after he announced that he was ending his cam
paign. and that during the conversation he said that
he looked forward to sitting down with him.
The advisor also said that McCain planned on
speaking soon with Huekabee.
McCain will most likelv select one of them to be
his running male, but who?
It's no secret that many Republicans dislike
McCain, so his choice of a vice president could
make or break the way that many voters decide to
go in when they east their ballots.
Romney, though he has not officially endorsed
McCain, said that he agreed with his opinion to
stick it out in Iraq, and not to leas e. He also slated
that his main reason for leaving the campaign was
to "unite the party." and said that if he stayed in the
battle until the convention he would be doing the
The Beacon wants to know who
you think should be the next
president. E-mail the name of
your favorite candidate to
srmsoB2@psu.edu, and the results
will run in next week’s issue.
Top 5 Fictional Presidents
By Scott Muska
5. Robin Williams in Man of the Year
4. A 1 Gore in South Park
3. Harrison Ford in Air Force One
2. Martin Sheen in West Wing
1. Bill Pullman in Independence Day
'nrm
l 1 _rLi
Republicans a disservice.
"I'd forestall the launch of a national campaign
and frankly. I'd make it easier for Senator Clinton or
Obama to w in." Romney said.
Some of Romney's beliefs make him an unstable
choice, though. He's been criticized for his tenden
cy to flip-flop on topics such as abortion.
Huekabee. on the other hand, could help McCain
gain some of the Evangelical support that he’s
lacked so far in his campaign if he makes the cut for
running mate. The former pastor has become a
favorite in many of the southern Bible Belt states,
where lie's captured the majority of his primary vic
tories.
He could bring a religious morality to McCain's
decidedly hawkish campaign, which would appeal
to mam conservative voters
In the liberal camp, it's much more difficult to
decipher who will become the finalist's running
male. It's been widely speculated that their could
be a ticket that involves both Obama and Clinton,
which is a possibility that some political analysts
love and some refuse to embrace.
The fact that the two are so closely split in voting
right now> presents both pros and consr-JU
up. then it could successfully unite*the
party, but it could also steer away
support the candidate that ends up in the v ice presi
dent slot, since the two candidates disagree strong
ly on a lew principles.
Father candidate could bring John Edwards back
into the campaign as a running mate, w hich could
sway a few of his supporters in their direction with
out doing much harm, since he w as not strongly dis
liked or critici/ed during his campaign.
If Obama w ins the nomination, he could conceiv -
ably choose Ted Kennedy (who avidly endorsed
him along with the rest of the Kennedy family) as a
running mate, which could prove to be very effec
tive since Kennedy holds so much weight among
Democrats.
Their could be any number of other surprise
selections for either side. too. and as this wildly
unpredictable election draws closer, it may not
become any easier to predict than it has been so far.
The Behrend Beacon I