Huckabee remained in the race Thursday but is not seen as a contender since he trailed even further behind McCain than Romney despite several key wins in the South.

McCain's campaign made it clear in an internal memo that there was no way for Romney to win. McCain senior strategist Charlie Black wrote that it would be impossible for Romney to come back.

"For Mitt Romney to match our delegate count, he would have to win more than 50 percent of those delegates," according to Black's memo. "And, he would have to win nearly every single delegate still available in order to become the nominee. And, many of these contests are proportional, so Mitt will have to win by big margins in many states to garner every last delegate."

Black pointed out that McCain ended Super Tuesday with 750 delegates unofficially. CNN's unofficial count on Thursday showed McCain with 714 total delegates, Romney with 286 and Huckabee with 186. It takes 1,191 delegates to secure the GOP nomination.

Romney said in his speech that, "If this were only about me, I'd go on. But it's never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country."

Zwick said that sentiment was sincere. "When he says that he cares more about the security of the country, that's from the heart," Zwick said. "He genuinely feels like this is different than most presidential races in that we are at war.

"That was a factor in his decision. If the stakes were just about the Republican party, I think he would have stayed in."

John Miller, a meat-packing company executive who lives in Utah and is one of Romney's top fundraisers, said Utahns were key to transforming Romney from an unknown candidate to a contender in the past year.

"People in Utah, just across the board, opened their checkbooks and supported Mitt," he said. "If the rest of the country knew Mitt like Utahns know Mitt, I think Mitt would be the president."

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