[AuH2ORepublican]

“Its the following statement that raises the rino flag for me.

“Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative,” Rubio said.”

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I, too, was troubled by that statement when I heard it a couple of days ago. But then I remembered that Romney really went to the mats for Rubio when nearly all of the GOP establishment (including a lot of conservative Senators) were gushing over Charlie Crist and annointing him as the next Senator from Florida. It would be crass for Rubio to turn around less than two years later and call Romney a RINO and endorse one of his opponents (which is why I never criticized Sarah Palin for endorsing McCain in 2010); the fact that Rubio hasn’t endorsed Romney makes me believe that while Rubio thinks that Romney is “not as bad as Crist,” that he still disagrees with him on many issues.

And my response was to a post that called Rubio a RINO for saying that candidates who oppose illegal immigration are not “anti-immigrant.”

[Leep]

It would be crass for Rubio to turn around less than two years later and call Romney a RINO

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I get that part.
I think he could have worded it different.
Romney is not a conservative. There is some question whether he is actually a republican.
I have heard Romney make excuses for his liberal policies.
How as governor he didn’t have a lot of choice but to give in.
I have never heard him strongly denounce many of them?

[ansel12]

It would be crass for Rubio to turn around less than two years later and call Romney a RINO and endorse one of his opponents (which is why I never criticized Sarah Palin for endorsing McCain in 2010)

You can't compare an endorsement to the importance of a Presidential ticket not turning on itself, Rubio did not need to endorse Romney and if he were conservative, he would not have.

Rubio has firmly placed himself in the anti-conservative camp.