Romney was not beat fair and square by McCain alone. He was beat by McCain with the help of Huckabee. Huckabee preaches religion every time he opens his mouth, and preaches miracles, but only so long as they serve the great and honorable Huckabee himself.
Romney knew that he had no chance if Huckabee stayed in the race with the conservative vote being split between the two. Romney didn't want to drop out of the race, he simply knew that if Huckabee insisted on staying in the race (which, obviously he did and had made clearly known) his defeat was inevitable. Huckabee has proven just how self-centered he is by staying in the race and forcing the guy out that had the better chance of winning among conservatives. As proof that the Huckaboom caused the doom is the fact that since the time that Romney suspended his campaign, Huckabee has been at a head to head race with McCain. In other words, Romney voters didn’t sign on with McCain, they went with Huckabee, and the logical conclusion is that Huckabee voters would have turned to Romney.
With little to no chance of winning other than a huge miracle favoring dear Huckabee, he has insisted in edging out the better candidate who had been preferred by a majority of conservatives, leaving the conservatives as the real loser. In my opinion, a truly religious man would not have taken such a road. He would have taken the higher road by leaving the race timely so that the conservative base could unite and allow Romney to compete with McCain. Now that there is no realistic chance for anyone other than McCain to win, I see nothing wrong with the way Romney left the race and the more part of people feel the same, as many articles I have read opined that his timely exit was noble.