He came up short 4 years ago and seemed in for a long and drawn out fight all the way to the convention. But last night, Mitt Romney officially hit the magic number to secure the Republican nomination for president.
1144 delegates were needed to clinch the nomination. Political threats from Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich made it appear problematic for Romney to reach that decisive figure. But yesterday, Texas put Romney over the hump with their 88 delegates, effectively handing him the 2012 Republican nomination.
“I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy and I am humbled to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee,” Romney said in a statement. “Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three and a half years behind us. I have no illusions about the difficulties of the task before us. But whatever challenges lie ahead, we will settle for nothing less than getting America back on the path to full employment and prosperity.”
On the night he clinched the nomination, Romney was at a Las Vegas fundraiser with Donald Trump, who has renewed old birther claims that the president wasn’t born in the United States. Although Romney says he believes Mr. Obama was born in America, he still has yet to condemn Trump’s circus-like insinuations to the contrary.
“If Mitt Romney lacks the backbone to stand up to a charlatan like Donald Trump because he’s so concerned about lining his campaign’s pockets, what does that say about the kind of president he would be?” Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, said in a statement.
When asked yesterday about Trump’s birther games, Romney said “I don’t agree with all the people who support me. And my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more. And I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”
romney isn't winning against obama in november, so who cares?