(Updated) One More Down and Counting

Bowing to the inevitable, Mitt Romney reportedly has suspended his quixotic run for the presidential nomination after winning only a small handful of states in the first month of primaries while squandering his sons’ inheritance in spending an outrageous $1.6 million per delegate won only to eat John McCain’s dust.

In a swan-song address this afternoon to the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington that was Romney at his disingenuous best, he opted for dividing since he couldn’t conquer, declaring that he was falling on his sword because:

“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.”

The former Massachusetts governor is the latest Republican wannabe to learn to hard way, as did Rudy Giuliani, that being a liberal or moderate in conservative drag not only is a bad fit but doesn’t fool anyone in the ideologically rare air of GOP politics.

Romney had even out-Giulianied Rudy as a flip flopper, changing his stripes on abortion, stem cell research, gun control, the minimum wage, gay marriage and gays in the military, and nowhere more so than on health care where his views were a carbon copy of Clinton’s until he got the presidential itch.

The mathematical odds against Romney prevailing grew expodentially after he was trounced in the Super Tuesday primaries, giving McCain a commanding 703-293 lead in delegates. Mike Huckabee has 190, with 1,191 needed to clinch the nomination, meaning that Romney would have to win more than 80 percent of the delegates in play over the next month to remain competitive..

Romney’s exit is a further complication for hard-core conservatives who are dead set against McCain. Some conservatives had showed tepid support for Romney, but are now left with McCain, Huckabee and Ron Paul.