*Update: It’s official. Romney has dropped out. Here is the text of the speech which included his withdrawal from the race.

Thanks to Hot Air we now have the video available:

May I say, done with class and for all the right reasons. While many on the left might accuse the Governor of using scare tactics with his talk of terrorism, I have always viewed National Security priority one.

We must win in Iraq, not surrender and Romney seems to have a complete grasp of that issue.

*Update (2): Could we see an endorsement of Senator McCain this evening by the Governor?

It would seem to be so if this report from Breitbart is accurate:

WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign.

“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,” Romney will say at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

“This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters… many of you right here in this room… have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country,” Romney said.

More here and here.

Because the Republican race is down to McCain and Romney (in spite of Huckabee and Ron Paul still being in) I was particularly interested in watching Wednesday night’s debate from the Reagan Library.

My thoughts:

McCain seemed very self-confident to the point of my wanting to wipe the smirk off his face.

Romney challenged McCain directly about a quote he says McCain has taken out of context regarding setting a timetable for pulling out of Iraq.

When the exact quote was read by one of the questioners I came down on Romney’s side.

McCain says he can lead because he led the largest squadron during the Viet Nam War and he can always appoint people to manage, but you can’t appoint a leader.

Romney then talked about his business life, which from the sound of it from Ron Paul or someone, left some people jobless. He also spoke of turning around the Olympics and addressed the tariffs charged in Massachusetts.

They were things such as charging companies more for putting their signs on the interstates. Instead of charging $200 charge $2000.

He mentioned his state’s health care bill, in which he said if someone was capable of paying for health insurance they should get it or pay their own medical expenses and the state made health insurance available to everyone. He says what the current governor and legislature are doing to health care in his state would be vetoed if he were still governor.

But, more than anything else, I was struck by his tenacity. I have stated many times I could not vote for Romney. Well, the candidate I supported dropped out a little over a week ago.

The bottom line is since we have the choice between these two good Americans I could easily vote for either of them and pray they get a certified conservative as a running mate and conservatives in the cabinet.

While most other bloggers are singing the praises of Mitt Romney’s speech about religion the other day, I’m going to be politically incorrect and tell you his religion is one of the reasons I will not support him as a candidate for president.

I will try to condense my concerns about his faith.

I have read some of the history of the Mormon church and during that reading I have found out about a massacre ordered by Brigham Young himself to kill innocent people who were passing through Utah on their way west.

After several years of trying to hide the crime it became apparent someone was going to have to pay for it as there were at least a couple of children who survived.

Brigham Young had a man he called his adopted son lead the massacre. When the son objected to the order that was delivered to him at his farm he was told that he must obey the “prophet’s” orders or he would not be able to enter the “celestial kingdom” where he could continue to be married and have children and eventually become a god.

They believe God is like them and they are like God—that God is flesh and bones and as He was they are and as He is they can be.

God is a Spirit Who can of course take on a body if He wishes as He did when the Son part of the Trinity took on a body.

Thinking he could become like God is what got Satan cast out of heaven.

You can read the last statement and confession of John D. Lee, Brigham Young’s “adopted” son, here.

This man was about to be executed for the Moutain Meadows Massacre and had nothing to gain or lose by his confession.

Here’s a part of his letter:

I was just getting fixed to live there, when I was ordered to go out into the interior and aid in forming new settlements, and opening up the country. I then had no wish or desire, save that to know and be able to do the will of the Lord’s anointed, Brigham Young, and until within the last few years I have never had a wish for anything else except to do his pleasure, since I became his adopted son. I believed it my duty to obey those in authority. I then believed that Brigham Young spoke by direction of the God of Heaven. I would have suffered death rather than have disobeyed any command of his. I had this feeling until he betrayed and deserted me. At the command of Brigham Young, I took one hundred and twenty-one men, went in a southern direction from Salt Lake City, and laid out and built up Parowan. George A. Smith was the leader and chief man in authority in that settlement. I acted under him as historian and clerk of the Iron County Mission, until January 1851. I went with Brigham Young, and acted as a committee man, and located Provo, St. George, Fillmore, Parowan and other towns, and managed the location of many of the settlements in Southern Utah….

…I said, “Brother Haight, who is your authority for acting in this way?”

He replied, “It is the will of all in authority. The emigrants have no pass from any one to go through the country, and they are liable to be killed as common enemies, for the country is at war now. No man has a right to go through this country without a written pass.”

We lay there and talked much of the night, and during that time Haight gave me very full instructions what to do, and how to proceed in the whole affair. He said he had consulted with Colonel Dame, and every one agreed to let the Indians use up the whole train if they could. Haight then said:

“I expect you to carry out your orders.”

I knew I had to obey or die. I had no wish to disobey, for I then thought that my superiors in the Church were the mouth pieces of Heaven, and that it was an act of godliness for me to obey any and all orders given by them to me, without my asking any questions.

If someone’s church demands they listen to the leader of said church or lose his eternal life I have a problem with that.

Right now the president and current “prophet” of the Mormon church is a man in his seventies or eighties.

What if this man loses his mental faculties and puts out an order to Mitt Romney if he becomes president to kill people somewhere by nuclear attack?

Yes, this sounds far-fetched and it probably would never happen, but I’m not willing to take the chance that my president would have to choose between the welfare of the country or the welfare of his eternity.

Aside from the religious concerns I have about Mitt Romney I have concerns about his actual political philosophy.

He has changed his position on abortion in order to look more conservative, but how conservative can a former governor of Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the country, be?

He signed a huge insurance bill into law in Massachusetts which he used to brag about until he found out conservatives weren’t too keen on the idea.

He seems to be slick and will say or do anything to get the presidency.

This post is long enough so I will leave it at that, but I will say that even if he is the nominee of the party I will, for the first time in my adult life, choose not to vote for the office of President of the United States. I cannot in good conscience do so.

The next in our series of GOP candidates in order to inform our readers of at least a part of what the candidates represent: