John McCain's best-financed opponent, Mitt Romney, ended his campaign for the Republican nomination for president Thursday. Romney's withdrawal cemented McCain's front-runner status within the Republican race, except with some of the party's conservative sector.
Romney was a formidable candidate, one who spent more than $88 million, including at least $35 million of his own money on his campaign. However, he rightly chose to withdraw for the benefit of his party.
The remaining Republican presidential candidates -- Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas -- have little chance of capturing the 2008 GOP nomination.
McCain's real concern lies in the challenge of unifying the Republican Party.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, conservative author Ann Coulter and others have been highly critical of McCain. They criticized McCain for not being a "true enough" conservative. They have especially criticize the GOP frontrunner for his past support for a guest worker policy, his votes against two tax cut plans of President Bush and for his support for campaign finance limits.
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The challenge for McCain is to win over the conservative stalwarts of his party. It will not likely be an easy task. Then he will need to re-energize the Republican Party's base.
If McCain can accomplish those two tasks, he will become an even-more formidable opponent for the eventual Democratic nominee. The rest of 2008 will be an exciting political time.
