If it wasn’t an endorsement, it was as close as anyone could come to it. The cover could have been produced a dozen different ways but the magazine’s reference to Mitt being an “executive” (what we don’t have now) couldn’t be missed.
‘If it wasn’t an endorsement, it was as close as anyone could come to it.’
I think you are reading way to much into it. There will be another candidate on the cover within two weeks, watch and see, to debunk any notion its an ‘endorsement’ if nothing else.