From the AP:

Republican campaign dropout Mitt Romney agreed Thursday to endorse Sen. John McCain for the party’s presidential nomination and ask his national convention delegates to swing behind the party front-runner, according to officials familiar with the decision.
Romney collected 280 delegates during his run through the early primaries and caucuses, more than enough to put McCain over the 1,191 needed to clinch the nomination.

The officials who disclosed Romney’s plans did so on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement is expected later in the day.

Romney’s decision marked a harmonious end to an occasionally contentious struggle between the two men over the party’s presidential nod. They criticized one another in television ads in state after state, a clash that effectively ended on Feb. 5, when McCain won a string of big-state primaries from coast to coast.

Officials said the former Massachusetts governor made his decision to back McCain earlier in the day, citing a desire to help the Arizona senator wrap up the nomination before too much more time passed.

I don’t entirely know that this is fair but if you consider that Romney dropped out of the race and that McCain is not only the symbolic frontrunner but statistically looks like he has the nomination you can probably consider that those who voted for either Romney, Paul or Uncommitted are in fact votes against John McCain. Considering Hukabee won three out of the four contests and then looking at those who cast their votes against McCain you can see that the anti-McCain vote was pretty high.

Kansas
Huckabee won (11,627) with McCain (4,587) in second. The total for Romney, Paul & Uncommitted was 2,919. Not only did Huckabee win big but you can add 2,919 to his commanding lead if you are counting the anti-McCain vote.

Louisiana

Huckabee won (69,665) with McCain (67,609) in second. The total for Romney who came in third and Paul was 18,827.
The anti-McCain vote was 88,492 to McCain’s 67,609.

Washington
Only 87% reporting but McCain is ahead with 3,468 to Huckabee’s 3,226. Paul is in third with 2,799, Romney in fourth with 2,253 and uncommitted ended with 1,729. So the anti-McCain vote was 10,007 to McCain’s 3,468.

Mitt Romney has edged out John McCain in a straw poll of conservatives taken at the CPAC conference in Washington D.C. Romney won 35% to McCain’s 34%.

Mitt Romney dropped out of the race yesterday and received the best press attention of his campaign. This helps prove my belief that if you want great press coverage and you are not McCain, Clinton or Obama, you need to either get in the race or drop out. Doing either will force the press to highlight your best qualities, speak well of your future, and rally your supporters.

My advice for Mike Huckabee? He should drop out early Saturday, ride the press tour on Sunday and on Monday say that he looked over the Sat. Primary results, found a glimmer of hope, and is starting up again.

Update: 12:42 Excerpts from the Associated Press:

”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 (Barack) Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney planned to say in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

”This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters … many of you right here in this room … have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming president. 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.”

Update: 12:35 Will announce at CPAC, will “suspend” campaign. (suspension means he would hold onto delegates). AP says he plans to say “If I fight on all the way to a convention… will make it more likely Senator Obama or Clinton will win… cannot be a part of aiding a surrender to terror… Not any easy decision, hate to loose…” NBC is running a special report.

Update: CNN claims 3 sources now saying Romney will either suspend or exit the race. Still unsure if the announcement will come at CPAC. Mark Halperin who put out the original report is on FOX News right now.

This just in from Mark Halperin, Mitt Romney is expected to leave the Republican race and could announce as early as today at his CPAC speech at 12:15PM.

Romney would face almost impossible odds if he decided to continue.

Politico writes that organizers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) have been instructed to urge attendees not to boo Senator John McCain when he makes his appearance there today.

During registration last night at the Omni Shoreham a registrant was asking to upgrade his CPAC package and then proceeded to ask what time GOP front-runner John McCain was going to speak today. “Oh good,” he said to the response — answer: 3 p.m. today — “I hope they boo him out of the room.”

“No, no no no no” came the reply from the person registering him. “We’ve been instructed to tell participants not to boo McCain.”

“Are you kidding me?” the shocked CPAC-goer asked.

“Well, we want to seem above Democrats and we don’t want the booing to be the story,” the CPAC person declared. When asked for a response, CPAC’s Ian Walters told us: “We would hope that our folks would be polite and give him a fair opportunity to be heard.”

CPAC is an annual event that often generates lots of news. Speakers will include the remaining Republican presidential candidates, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other conservative luminaries.

One thing unified all the candidates last night, they declared victory. Every one of the candidates found something to celebrate and here is what they had to say.

Hillary Clinton

John McCain

Barack Obama

Mitt Romney

Mike Huckabee

A “senior advisor” out of Boston has told MSNBC that based on the California win “Tomorrow will be a day of frank discussions for the campaign”.

Today, Romney for President Campaign Manager Beth Myers issued the following statement regarding the outcome of West Virginia’s Republican Party convention:

“Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain’s inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney’s campaign of conservative change.

“Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led on today’s first ballot. Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party.”

FOX News and Rush Limbaugh were reporting on a deal earlier that McCain supporters were told to go toward Huckabee. My understanding is that this is how these caucus and convention systems work. If you don’t reach viability or don’t look like you are going to win, your supporters go somewhere else and you can make your preference known.

From McCain:

From Romney: