U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo yesterday dropped his bid for the White House while endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Tancredo was most widely associated as a fierce opponent of illegal immigration. He made the decision to bow out of the race two weeks ago, though he did not decide who he was going to endorse until yesterday morning, according to New Hampshire campaign director Shelly Uscinski.

Despite a concerted effort in New Hampshire and Iowa, his campaign never received widespread support from potential voters.

During his most recent trip to the state, the Congressman sat in the corner of a restaurant with his local staff, halfway through a 14-hour day of campaigning for President when a salty waitress approached the table.

"So, which one of you is running for President?" she asked. Tancredo laughed, pointed to his New Hampshire campaign director, then ordered soup for lunch.

Tancredo jokingly called himself the "bookend candidate" because of where he was relegated during televised debates. He isn't a multi-millionaire or a famous political figure. At some campaign stops, voters had trouble swallowing his message. And while most polls tracked his support in the single digits, there was something -- a vision of what America should be like -- that kept him boarding a plane from Colorado, week after week to pound the pavement in New Hampshire.

Yesterday, he said Romney had the strongest position against illegal immigration, though he acknowledged the two Republicans differed on a number of issues.

"Issues do matter, they really are the things that get my juices flowing," he said while still a candidate over a dinner of well-done pork chops and a glass of red wine in a Nashua restaurant. "They are the reason I can get in the plane and go to the next stop and miss my grandkid's baseball games and football season."

"I keep thinking to myself -- maybe it's just trying to rationalize this -- I keep thinking I'm doing this for them," he said.

For Tancredo, the campaign was about maintaining what he calls America's English speaking, Judeo-Christian heritage, especially as the pressure to change grows at the hands of illegal immigrants and Islamic extremists, he said.

"You can call me a one-issue candidate if you'd like," he said. "As long as you realize my issue is the survival of this country as we know it."

And on the trail, he never shied away from that message, no matter who was in the audience. When a crowd wasn't as warm as Tancredo may have hoped for, he moved on with the understanding that his former campaign staff -- true believers -- would be waiting in the car to get him ready for the next stop.

"Its like being on tour with a rock band, without the sex, drugs or partying," said former bodyguard and driver Luke Freudenberg, who worked part-time while the Congressman was in the state and spent the rest of his time running an underwater salvage operation in the Lakes region. For Uscinski, the full-time state campaign director, Tancredo represented the only true conservative in the race.

During a recent swing through the state, including stops in Dover, Manchester, Hooksett, Merrimack and Nashua, voters had a little more trouble accepting his message.

"He gets tagged with that single issue, but there are too many things going on to vote for one person based on one issue," said Skip Ashooh, who randomly met Tancredo in stores or on the sidewalk three times since this election cycle began.

"That man is outrageously prejudiced, to the point of being un-American," said Irene Jacqz, 16, after listening to the Congressman talk about illegal immigration.

But at house parties -- organized and attended by strong supporters -- Tancredo was hailed as a champion. He railed against the Spanish language on telephone customer service lines, television stations and in bilingual newspapers. More than a few heads were nodding in his favor inside a Hudson home filled with two-dozen supporters.

"As a foreigner, I can say that he is really right," said Michiko Maddock, who emigrated from Japan 10 years ago. "Living here, people from other countries have to understand this is America. I keep my culture and I teach my kids about it, but as long as our life is here, we will be Americans."

She said her children speak only English though she teaches them about Japanese food and culture.

But, the campaign trail also took a physical toll on the candidate. After years of shooting guns, a painful problem with his inner ear plagues the 61-year-old, forcing him to wear noise-canceling headphones between events.

Uscinski said the process of breaking down the campaign's rented office space began yesterday.

"We had a good run," she said. "As far as I'm concerned, it was a great success. When Tom got in, immigration was not a topic of discussion until Tom made it part of the discussion. Tom can declare a victory as far as I'm concerned."