Despite media reports which declare he is taking his last stand or losing momentum, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney says otherwise.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pledged to fight all the way to the Republican nominating convention this summer if necessary, despite being overpowered by John McCain in Super Tuesday contests.

He celebrated victories Tuesday in his home state of Massachusetts, Utah and five caucus states. But he was pummeled elsewhere on a day he had hoped to prove his presidential campaign wasn’t doomed.

Nonetheless, Romney vowed to keep up his fight, casting it as a battle to save the future of the nation.

“I think there’s some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it’s not all done tonight. We’re going to keep on battling,” Romney said. “We’re going to go all the way to the convention. We’re going to win this thing and we’re going to go to the White House.”

Amid a blur of 21 elections from coast to coast, McCain racked up wins from Connecticut to California. Romney, in addition to his two victories in state primaries, won caucuses in North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Colorado and Alaska.

The Salt Lake Tribute noted that Romney’s wife, Ann, did not appear, at one point, to be in agreement:

Romney vowed publicly to trudge on despite the series of disappointing losses; even after his wife, Ann, said that “The one thing that’s clear tonight is that nothing’s clear.”

“I think she’s wrong; one thing that’s clear is this campaign is going on,” Romney told supporters in Boston. “I think there’s some people that thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it’s not done tonight.”

Mitt Romney, in his own words, in a speech on Super Tuesday, expresses his determination.



Given Mitt Romney’s history as a self-described “turnaround artist” no one should be surprised. As Peter S. Canellos pointed out nearly a year ago,

Then there’s the former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, who is billing himself as a turnaround artist, a reference to his career as a venture capitalist.

Romney put his and his partners’ money into new, struggling, or undervalued businesses and then ordered up changes that led to higher profitability.

The venture capitalist is different from a chief executive, whose portfolio includes matters such as preserving the brand name, maintaining quality, and boosting employee morale.

The venture capitalist may touch on these niceties from a distance, but his strength is having the detachment to spot obstacles to profitability that the CEO missed. This often includes cutting off less profitable arms of the company, and chopping pay and benefits. It also can lead to a healthier company, which, in turn, can provide more opportunities for both investors and employees.

In his book, “Turnaround,” Romney writes of how he applied his business approach to the faltering 2002 Winter Olympics.

After learning of the 9/11 attacks, Romney writes, “I knew instinctively that the events of that day would have a profound effect on our work. There would undoubtedly be calls for the cancellation of the Games. It was even possible that individual athletes, teams, or entire national delegations would make the decision to stay home. Security and transportation, particularly air travel, would be more complicated than before.”

This venture capitalist’s ability to size up a situation and take all necessary measures has defined both his message and his campaign. The implicit message is that Romney will be a far shrewder master of the Iraq war than Bush — making clear-headed judgments and achieving maximum results.

The perseverance is admirable but unfortunately for the Mitt Romney campaign, the votes and the Party support do not appear to be evident.

Many of the Republican contests so far have awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis. But after Super Tuesday, many states award delegates proportionally, so a win even in a big state like Texas might not provide Romney with substantially more delegates than the loser.

The math would become as important as the politics. In Texas, for example, if Romney were to win with 50 percent of the vote, he would get all the delegates. But if he got less than 50 percent, a good possibility in a three-man race, the delegates would be awarded on a proportional basis. And anyone who won less than 20 percent of the vote in Texas would not get any delegates.

Romney, speaking yesterday in West Virginia, said there are “a very large number of scenarios” that could determine whether he could collect enough delegates to win the nomination.

“The implications for me could change dramatically,” Romney said. “One would be, well what is Governor Huckabee going to do? That might change things. What’s our fund-raising look like, and what’s John McCain’s fund-raising look like? And what are we hearing from leaders in the party, conservative world? All those things would probably figure into my decision.”