The official announcement will come Feb. 10, but Forbes publisher Steve Forbes - who was all but the first Presidential contender to come out long and strong for privacy rights - is leaving the Republican field to Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain. The decision followed Forbes's third-place finish in the Delaware primary, in which Bush won and McCain (who didn't even campaign there) finished second.
Forbes is traveling in Michigan today and will make the announcement in his home state here, according to campaign aides who confirmed his withdrawal for Conservative News Service.
Former Ambassador Alan Keyes is also in the GOP hunt, but he's considered little more than a pressure-point issues candidate with no realistic chance of taking the nomination from Bush or McCain. Forbes isn't likely to announce which candidate he will endorse until further on in the campaign, his aides tell CNS.
Forbes could make a case that he alone wasn't beholden to special interests - as he did in 1996, he spent tens of millions of his own money for his campaign. It began promisingly enough, trailing Bush by only five votes in the Alaska Republican straw poll and taking 30 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses to finish a strong third.
But the publisher finished a distant third in the New Hampshire primary despite picking up the endorsement of the state's largest daily newspaper, the Manchester Union-Leader. And his Delaware finish was probably an eye-opener, considering he won the state in 1996 and made half a dozen campaign appearances this time around.
Forbes's withdrawal means one less Presidential candidate on record as a strong privacy advocate, even if he also supported a few tighter restrictions on online porn.
In a December speech to the conservative Free Congress Foundation, Forbes had promised to make privacy protection a key element of his administration if he made it to the White House. He backs encryption and e-mail blocking among other privacy protective measures. In fact, he blasted the candidates of both parties at the time for not making privacy a more visible concern in their campaigns.
The question now: Which Republican benefits from the Forbes withdrawal? Some say it's Bush who might reap the spoils, since Forbes may have siphoned off some key support which might otherwise have belonged to the governor, says CNS.
Bush himself thinks so, telling CNS he's going to work to woo Forbes's supporters. He also praised Forbes for bringing particular ideas to the campaign table. Forbes is perhaps known best on tax issues, famous for proposing a flat federal income tax rate.
Forbes's withdrawal also means the real test for Bush and McCain comes in the South Carolina primary. Bush is still the national GOP frontrunner. But McCain won big in New Hampshire. The senator has, however, begun taking slowly-burning fire over his belligerent style and his touting of campaign finance reform and an end to Washington insiderism despite having been one of the biggest beneficiaries of classical Washington insiderism - while alienating his own party - during his 17 year career in the Senate.
And if that test proves still too close, along comes March's Super Tuesday round of state primaries.
