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Mitt Romney's endorsement of John McCain is one of the most important endorsements that McCain has received not because of any overwhelming influence that Romney has as a politician but because Romney's own relationship with McCain is a microcosm to the relationship conservatives have with McCain.

Throughout the campaign Romney and McCain criticized one another more than they criticized any of the other candidates. The battle between these two candidates was waged not only in political ads and speeches on the campaign trail but also in a few heated moments of the Republican debates.

Romney ran as a Washington outsider, and he ran on the idea that Washington "is broken" and often said that you cannot fix Washington by sending the "same people back to Washington just to switch chairs." This was an attack not only on the Clintons and other Washington insiders but on his Republican rival McCain. Meanwhile he attacked the campaign finance bills and immigration bills that were put forth by McCain and attacked McCain's vote against the Bush tax cuts and his lack of experience and lack of knowledge in the field of economics.

As the nomination process dragged on, and Rudy Giuliani left the race, Romney found himself in a tough position. McCain captured the votes of the moderates and independents, allowing him to win many key states, in particular the states which were winner take all. Meanwhile, the conservative Republicans were split between Romney and Mike Huckabee. After Super Tuesday many people expected Romney to go on with the campaign, and he certainly had the money to continue. In fact, presumably if he had stayed in the race he would have insured that in many states, no candidate would win a clear majority and perhaps no candidate would be able to get the 1191 delegates needed to win the nomination. In this case, McCain, Romney, and Huckabee could have made their cases at the convention and tried to win the nomination. Romney obviously foresaw this possibility when looking over the numbers from the Super Tuesday election results and made the difficult yet honorable decision to exit the race.

Though he admitted that he and McCain have some policy differences, at CPAC Romney was able to acknowledge and salute McCain for his patriotism and his service to the country, and he made the pronouncement that national security and the war on terror are the most important issues, and these are issues which he and McCain can agree on.

With this speech and with his endorsement a few days later, Romney did an amazing thing. By, in his own words, putting the party and the country ahead of himself and leaving the race so that McCain's national campaign could go forward, he has made it easier for McCain to get the number of delegates needed to win the nomination and allowed the Republicans to avoid the potential disaster of a brokered convention. (as the conservatives will no long be split between Romney and Huckabee, allowing McCain to win decisively)

His speech at CPAC and his endorsement are also the first steps in a call for the party to unite behind one leader and begin to make a strong stand to win the election this fall. And this allows McCain more time to mend fences with conservatives on issues they do not agree on and more importantly to focus on the issues which they do agree on.

Romney's endorsement may not be enough to convince all conservatives to get on board with McCain, but it certainly does not hurt, and with Romney out of the race, and the nomination of Huckabee being a long shot at this point, McCain is the best alternative to a Democrat in the White House for Republicans and conservatives. And if Romney can bury the hatchet, then I believe other Republicans will as well.

Learn more about this author, Jerri Rivers.
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