Erie, PA—

Mitt Romney gave his first post-exit interview to Sean Hannity today revealing new thoughts on the vice-presidency and a new hair-do. It’s hard to know what was more shocking. . .

After saying at least twice on the stump that he would not be John McCain’s number two he seems to have changed his mind saying he would accept the vice-presidency if it was offered to him:

“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included. Of course this is a nation, which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call,” Romney told Hannity.

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The former Massachusetts governor mentioned that he’s sure McCain already has a long list of “terrific people” on his V.P list, but he would do anything to help him win:

“I will do whatever Senator McCain asks for me to do in his campaign to help out in any way that I can. I want to make sure that we have conservative leadership guiding our country,” Romney said, “Now is the time for us to come together and support his candidacy.”

He went after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, specifically attacking their experience—perhaps positioning himself as McCain’s attack dog (no pun intended):

“I mean, listening to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talk about experience in a national security crisis is like listening to two Chihuahuas argue about which is the biggest dog,” Romney said, “When it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and they are the chihuahuas. And I think as we talk more and more about their battle with one another, focused on the fact that neither one has real experience in dealing with the issues of our time, that that will only aurgur for his benefit.”

Romney was also asked if he may run again and he was very vague saying, “Who know what the future holds” and he is “not going to close the door.”

And for everyone wondering what Romney has been doing since I stopped following him around—he’s been spending time with his grandchildren.

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Boston, MA – Sen. John McCain all but sewed up the GOP nomination Thursday after receiving the endorsement of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Noting that his former rival “helped me become a better candidate,” McCain said Romney will help him “draw the stark differences” between the two parties during the general election.

For his part, Romney said that despite an extremely contentious campaign and their differences on issues ranging from immigration to taxes to campaign finance reform, it is time for the party to come together.

“I recognize, it’s time for us to put aside our differences and focus on the places where we think we have common ground and select our nominee and go forward together on a unified basis,” Romney said. “Right now the Democrats are fighting. Let’s us come together and make progress while they are fighting.”

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***UPDATE***

The campaign just confirmed that Governor Romney’s endorsement of Senator McCain means he will be officially releasing his delegates and asking them to support McCain. When Romney stopped “actively campaigning” he still retained his delegates. After the endorsement they will be officially released.

Providence, RI — Fox News has learned that Governor Mitt Romney is endorsing Sen. John McCain this afternoon at Romney for President Headquarters in Boston, MA.

Romney will ask his delegates to support McCain, which would put him very close the 1,191 delegate threshold necessary to lock the nomination. Romney made his decision to endorse today in the interest of helping McCain gain the delegates he needed to secure the party nomination and unite the party for the general election against the Democrats in November.

Romney campaign manager Beth Myers notified McCain campaign manager Rick Davis in a telephone call today, and they immediately made arrangements for an announcement in Boston this afternoon since they were already campaigning in RI.

Romney and McCain will meet today before announcing the formal endorsement at a press conference.

per Shushannah Walshe

Warwick, RI — Fox News has learned that Governor Mitt Romney is endorsing Sen. John McCain this afternoon at Romney for President Headquarters in Boston, MA.

Romney will ask his delegates to support McCain, which would put him very close the 1,191 delegate threshold necessary to lock the nomination. Romney made his decision to endorse today in the interest of helping McCain gain the delegates he needed to secure the party nomination and unite the party for the general election against the Democrats in November.

Romney campaign manager Beth Myers notified McCain campaign manager Rick Davis in a telephone call today, and they immediately made arrangements for an announcement in Boston this afternoon since they were already campaigning in RI.

Romney and McCain will meet today before announcing the formal endorsement at a press conference.

 Is Governor Romney already thinking about a run in four years? Advisors are already calling him 45, as in the 45th president of the United States.

Click below to watch me to discuss it with Jon Scott on Weekend Live:

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Over a year of campaigning and upwards of 40 million dollars–Mitt Romney is no longer a candidate.

Click below to watch me explain his exit from the race and sum up my experience on “On the Record with Greta van Susteren”:

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When Mitt Romney dropped out of the race, he dropped a line in his speech that didn’t sit well with Senator Barack Obama. Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference, Romney declared, “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.”

When the Democratic co-frontrunner was asked by a reporter to comment on Romney’s decision to leave the race on a flight from New Orleans to Omaha, Obama demurred. “I don’t really have much of a reaction,” he said, fielding another question.

But when asked to respond to Governor Romney’s line that the Democrats would, in essence, surrender to terror, Obama opened up. “That’s the kind of poorly thought out comment that lead him to drop out,” Obama said. “It’s a classic attempt to appeal to people’s fears that will not work in this campaign. I think that’s part of the reason he was such an ineffefctive candidate.”

What did he mean by “poorly thought out?” Obama explained, “No Democrat has suggested we surrender to terrorism. Democrats have suggested that we start withdrawing out of Iraq so we can focus our attention on terrorism. But you know it’s a classic example of trying to conflate the war against real enemies with the failed strategy of the Bush Administration in Iraq. And it’s those sort of glib statements that I think got Romney consistently in trouble in this race.”

But will he miss Mitt on the stump? When talking about illegal immigration, Obama often jokes that if the U.S. were to round up illegal immigrants, they’d be spending resources catching busboys and those who work on Mitt Romney’s lawn. At a December town hall in New Hampshire, Obama said, “We’d clear out some of the prisons to make room for somebody who’s a housekeeper at Mitt Romney’s house. That was just a joke. I couldn’t resist. He’s an example of somebody who, ‘Oh, we gotta be real tough. But my lawn, you know, is important.’ “

And once at a pre-Halloween town hall in Iowa, Obama declared, “I am thinking about wearing a Mitt Romney mask, but it has two sides to it. It goes in both directions at once.”

A running log of reporting on Romney’s exit:

12:53 - I’m standing with staff. They confirm and say “he would have made a great president.” At least one staff member is crying.

12:54 - Excerpt from Romney’s withdrawal speech at CPAC: “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.”

2:02 - About ten people knew before today, including campaign manager Beth Myers, Admaker Stu Stevens, Communications Director Matt Rhoades, National Spokesman Kevin Madden, Deputy Chief of Staff Peter Flaherty, Legislative Affairs staffer Cindy Gillespie, Traveling Press Secretary Eric Fehrnstrom and Advance Staffer Will Ritter…

And, of course, Ann and their five sons were involved in the decision. The whole family was in total agreement. Ann was with him when he wrote his CPAC speech. The majority of the staff was not told until today, though some of the senior staff suspected after meeting with the Governor yesterday.

The final decision came around 2000 EST last night, when the Governor emailed a rough draft of the speech to the above individuals.

Romney has said previously that he would support the GOP nominee, and today’s comments were a “sort of endorsement,” but no plans have been made for an official endorsement.

Right after his speech, Romney met with his two senior finance chairs, and is now en rote to the Capitol Hill Club to thank his congressional supporters. Tonight’s event in Baltimore has been cancelled.

The campaign is still maintaining that they thought there was a pathway to the nomination, but the Governor is “nothing if not pragmatic.”

He will now go home to Massachusetts and get some rest.

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Boston, MA—

Mitt Romney greeted his supporters at his election night party flanked by his wife Ann and three of his sons and their wives. Members of the Massachusetts Republican delegation stood behind Romney on the stage. He already had wins in his home state of Massachusetts, Utah and North Dakota, but the rest was still unclear:

“At this stage, it is really hard to tell how many delegates we are going to get because a lot of states of course we haven’t heard from, the Western states. We know that is going to be close and interesting in states,” Romney said, “All over the West so we are going to see what kind of numbers come in. We will add those numbers up and have them bright and early in the morning. My guess is at our home we will stay up a little bit later than most of you will.”

That’s after his all-nighter last night and the campaign pressing that the presidential hopeful will get some sleep tonight.

The former Massachusetts governor made it clear that his campaign will not end tonight even with disappointing losses in states like Georgia, Missouri, and West Virginia. He said he will go to the Republican National Convention:

“Some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it is not all done tonight. We are going to keep on battling. We are going to go all the way to the convention. We are going to win this thing and we are going to go to the White House.”

Romney stayed upbeat and enthusiastic staying mostly on his stump. He did quip that he disagreed with his wife, a rare occasion:

“Ann came to me and she said you know the one thing that is clear tonight is that nothing’s clear but I think she’s wrong. One thing that is clear is this campaign is going on.”

At this point Romney has picked up Massachusetts, Utah, North Dakota, Colorado, Montana, and Minnesota. John McCain has won California, a hard loss for the Romney camp. But, we will not know what that means in terms of delegates for quite awhile.

Watch an excerpt here:

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Boston, MA–

Fox News projects that Romney wins Minnesota and Colorado. After campaigning in Minnesota 3 days ago and getting enthusiastic crowds both are  important wins for the campaign.