Mitt Romney suspends his campaign... To find a third party anti-Trump candidate

If #NeverTrump was on a stretcher, its doctor would be saying "call it" and looking up at the clock right about now. When Cruz left the race it seemed like the movement might have legs, but whatever life it once held has been steadily bleeding out ever since. As Trump gets stronger (and polls better) the odds that #NeverTrumpers could achieve their goals have all but collapsed. Now, one of #NeverTrump's top dogs is wandering away from the effort. Mitt Romney - a man who knows a thing or two about suspending campaigns - has decided it's time to abandon his search for an independent third-party conservative.

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From CNN

Mitt Romney won't launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it. The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney's thinking told CNN. The news was first reported by Yahoo News. It's the latest blow to the "Never Trump" movement -- a group of conservatives led by Romney, blogger Erick Erickson and The Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol -- to find an alternative to Trump.

The only surprising thing about this is that it took so long. Given the vast array of "stuff" that needs to happen in order to mount a presidential bid, it was always a pipe dream. Sorting out the money, staff, and logistics of such a huge undertaking - particularly when there's no established party involved - would take years.

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If anyone believed it could be jump-started in a couple of week by a few writers and couple of Romney hit-speeches, they were seriously fooling themselves. For better or worse, Trump is going to be the Republican nominee. However long his odds may be, they’re vastly superior to those of any #NeverTrump independent. The faster the third party line of thought dies out, the better.

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