MANCHESTER, N.H.--Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 nomination on Wednesday, providing the former Massachusetts governor a potentially crucial boost coming off a narrow 8-vote win in Iowa.
The announcement brought together two longtime Republican rivals, as the veteran senator who failed to reach the White House offered his support to the candidate he had soundly defeated four years earlier.
Go behind the scenes of an Iowa caucus in Montezuma, where the Mahaffey family, along with friend and first-time caucus participant Steven Johnson, come together under the roof of the county courthouse to take part in "participatory politics," with each casting a vote for a different candidate.
Post-game analysis of Iowa caucuses
McCain, who won the New Hampshire primaries in both 2000 and 2008, said he wanted to “make sure we make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States of America.”
“New Hampshire is the state that will catapult him to victory in a very short period of time,” McCain said after being introduced by Romney at a high-school gymnasium. “That's why I’m here.”
McCain, his voice rising, also sharply criticized President Obama, who defeated him in 2008, saying the incumbent had failed to keep his promises to fix the economy and had led the United States to be viewed as weak overseas.
The McCain endorsement came during a fast-moving day of developments that saw one GOP candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, withdraw from the race after a disappointing last-place showing in the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night. The top two finishers, Romney and Rick Santorum, moved their fight to New Hampshire.
Bachmann’s fiery rhetoric and social conservatism propelled her to the top of the closely watched Iowa straw poll in August. But she ended up with just 5 percent of the vote in Iowa, a state where she was born and had focused most of her attention.
“I didn’t tell you what the polls said that you wanted to hear. I didn’t tell you what I knew to be false. I didn’t try to spin you,” Bachmann said at a morning news conference in West Des Moines. “Last night, the people of Iowa spoke, with a very clear voice. And so, I have decided to stand aside.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also surged early in the race, canceled campaign plans Wednesday after garnering only 10 percent of the Iowa vote — despite spending more on advertising in the state than any other candidate. But Perry indicated Wednesday morning that he would head to South Carolina soon to keep campaigning.
“And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State,” Perry wrote in a Twitter message, accompanied by a photo of him in running attire making a thumbs-up gesture. “Here we come South Carolina!!!”
In New Hampshire, Romney and McCain walked toward the stage to the tune, “Highway to the Danger Zone.” Romney delivered a variation of his stump speech before turning to McCain and lavishing praise on the Arizona senator, calling him “one of America’s heroes,” “a great friend” and “a giant among men.”
McCain took the microphone and delivered a full-throated rebuke to Obama: “My friends, our message to President Barack Obama is you can run, but you can’t hide from your record of making this country bankrupt, from destroying our national security and for making this nation one that we have to restore with Mitt Romney as president of the United States of America.”
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