BULLETIN – ROMNEY OUT – AT 11:28 A.M. ET:  Mitt Romney has just told his supporters that he will not be a candidate for president for 2016.  From Fox:   

Mitt Romney announced Friday he will not run for president in 2016, after briefly flirting with a third White House run -- a decision that only slightly narrows the crowded field of potential Republican candidates.

"After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I've decided it's best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee," Romney told donors on a conference call Friday morning.

The announcement comes after the 2012 GOP nominee, who repeatedly denied interest in another campaign, surprised donors earlier this month by telling them he was considering it.

Since then, the former Massachusetts governor spent three weeks calling donors and strategists and giving a handful of addresses, including to a Republican National Committee summit. But while some from his former campaign team were willing to wait for his decision, others were already gravitating toward the budding campaign of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The two heavyweights were seen as competing for many of the same donors and supporters and strategists. And some doubted whether Romney, who lost to President Obama in 2012 after a campaign in which Democrats cast him as out-of-touch, would be able to connect on a third run -- even as early polls showed him leading the GOP field.

Romney, in a written statement which he also read from on his conference call, said he believes he could win the nomination, and that he would have enough funding and support.

COMMENT:  Conventional wisdom holds that the chief beneficiary from Romney's announcement is indeed Jeb Bush. 

But hold on.  I'm getting the feeling that Republicans want to look over the whole field.  There is support building for Scott Walker, for example.  And Marco Rubio, who, it was felt, would not run if Bush ran – Bush was his mentor in Florida – is showing signs of independence. 

What I'd like to see is some great Republican women up there.  The party has a cadre of young, female leaders who are already making names for themselves.  Some, like Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez, are governors.  Kelly Ayotte is an outstanding senator and an authority on national security.  If Bush is the nominee, he would have to look to the group of Republican women leaders for a possible running mate. 

Two exciting years in politics coming up.

January 30, 2015