Obama, others respond to Romney's concession speech

On Thursday, February 7, 2008, Mitt Romney dropped out of the 2008 presidential race, declaring that:

“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 Senator 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.”

One questions whether in fact, Romney's concession is instead the result of his poor showing on Super Tuesday at the hands of McCain and Huckabee. The West Virginia "backroom deal" was a particularly disappointing loss for his campaign... and solid proof that the other candidates really hate him.


Barack Obama responded to these accusations with this statement:

“No Democrat has suggested that we surrender to terrorism. Democrats have suggested that we start withdrawing out of Iraq so we can focus our attention on terrorism. But, you know, it’s a classic example of trying to conflate the war against real enemies with the failed strategy of the Bush Administration in Iraq. ” Obama said in response to a follow-up question. “It’s those sort of glib statements that I think got Romney consistently in trouble in this race.”

A very well-reasoned response.



Here's Jon Stewart's take on Romney's concession speech.





Next is a video of the full Romney concession speech, including almost 19 minutes in the beginning before he finally gets around to conceding. The concession part starts around 18.55.

Text of Romney's concession speech here, if you'd rather read it than watch it.



Quick story: i was in a suburb of boston yesterday, and my taxi driver told me a story of how mitt romney's daughter in law sideswiped him a few years ago, when romney was still gov of massachussets. she took off his side mirror, smashed in the door, and would have taken off his hand or arm, had he not just in time brought his arm back inside the car window, after putting it outside to toss a cigarette butt. he said he had to chase her for more than 80 feet before she stopped. she wanted to hit and run. very american of her.