Now that I’ve had some time to process the fact Mitt has now exited stage right in the 2008 Race for the Oval, I’m ready to look ahead to what awaits in the remaining months before the conventions and the general election this November.

I’ve seen the various reactions to Mitt’s “stepping aside” as pundits, bloggers, and everyday people make their feelings (good, bad, and indifferent) known. I must admit that I find troubling the number of people who declare steadfastly that, now that Mitt has taken himself off the field, there is no way they will ever support the candidacy of John McCain.

People, this is the way politics work. Sometimes your guy wins, many times he does not. Either way, once the squabbling and primary brass knuckle fights are over, there comes a time when you need to look at reality and get behind the candidate who comes nearest to your values.

I have made no bones about my disagreements with Senator McCain. I could go into great detail about where he and I differ on policy, strategy, and overall Republican-ness. I do not believe he’s the best qualified candidate for this nation’s highest office. The best candidate, in my mind, is Mitt Romney. Mitt stepped aside, so while McCain may in fact be a Maverick SOB, now he’s my Maverick SOB.

Some of you reading this are probably too young to remember the 1976 Republican primary contest. I was only five-years-old, so what I know about that contest I read from history. The long and the short of the story is that Ronald Reagan fought Gerald Ford tooth and nail, state by state, all the way to the Kansas City convention. Ford narrowly beat Reagan on the first ballot, and Reagan gave a speech endorsing Ford which in fact overshadowed Ford’s own address.

Reagan had a way of overshadowing everyone. But I digress.

There was no love lost between Reagan and Ford. The two had deep differences and Reagan could have just as easily left the stage and gone home. He didn’t. He put his heart and soul in to campaigning for Ford. When the convention dust had settled, Reagan knew Ford would have been better for American that Carter ever would be. He was right.

There are those within the Republican Party who believe four years of wandering in the wilderness dragging the two-ton anchor of a Hillary or Obama presidency would teach the Republican Party and American a lesson. They look back to 1976 and see the intervening Carter years as penance America paid for leaning too close to the left side of the political spectrum. They see Reagan’s 1976 loss as a “strategic defeat” which enabled the Reagan Revolution to start with a bang in 1980.

History always provides a 20/20 hindsight view which is unavailable until you’ve already been there. 2008 is not 1976. Let’s quickly review the Carter legacy – most of which we still have to deal with.

1. The High Water Mark of the Misery Index.
2. The hollowing out of the American military.
3. 444 Days and the rise of Islamic Extremists.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the electorate, we are still dealing with the after-effects of the Carter years some 30 years after he was driven from the White House by the Reagan landslide. I’m pretty safe in saying Reagan would have preferred to have beaten Carter before he had a chance to run America into the ground.

November is fast approaching. The United States cannot afford (literally) to place the reigns of power in the hands of a man or woman who will run the white flag up in Iraq and other fronts in the Global War on Terror. If either Obama or Hillary cut and run from this war, you can rest assured their successor will be forced to send many more of your sons and daughters to fight the same battles again – this time at a much higher cost which will be measured in blood.

While I may have my personal differences with John McCain, like Mitt I know that for him, surrender is not an option. That’s enough for me. If we lose this war, the domestic stuff won’t matter much. It’s hard to have a thriving economy when cities are on fire.

Mitt made the decision to stand aside based on the belief that both Hillary and Barack are unacceptable options to lead this great country in time of war. Take special note of this line from his speech:

If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country. (Emphasis Added)

Simply put, dear reader, if you sit home to “teach this country a lesson” and thereby hand the White House keys to Hillary or Obama, you’re putting your pride above what’s best for this nation.

I know for a fact there’s no other titled (aside from that of husband and father) that Mitt would rather have than “Mr. President”. I saw him yesterday swallow his pride and ambition in order to do what he thinks is best for this great nation. This country means that much to him.

This isn’t about Mitt. This isn’t about you. This is about America. Mitt made that clear yesterday.

That’s good enough for me.

It’s time to close ranks and move forward.