Santorum Holds Off on Endorsing GOP Candidate

KGOAM - San Francisco ^ | April 16, 2012 | ABC Radio News

[Cincinatus' Wife]

(NEW YORK) -- Rick Santorum said Monday night there is “no question Barack Obama has to be defeated,” but did not say he would back presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, instead revealing he had only spoken to Newt Gingrich, not Romney yet.

“As far as going with a particular presidential candidate right now -- I mean -- had a chance to talk to Newt, I haven’t had a chance yet to talk to Gov. Romney,” Santorum said on a conference call. “But we’ll be talking to both of them and we are going to go out and deal with who we believe is in the best interest of our country and winning this election and make sure that we have a conservative platform, conservative message and they follow through with that conservative message after the election.”

This is a not-so-subtle jab at the man about to become the party’s standard bearer. Santorum consistently would say on the campaign trail that in 2008, Romney convinced him of his conservative bona fides before he backed him and then Romney quickly changed his tune.

Although Santorum is expected to eventually back Romney -- both longtime adviser John Brabender and top donor Foster Friess told ABC News last week they expect him to endorse Romney -- he was specific Monday night that he was not endorsing anyone in the presidential race.

“I haven’t supported any candidate at this point,”........

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Conservatives, Tea Partiers and anti-Romney voters can still make an impact in this primary. Below is ONE example; the trend may well be replicated in all upcoming elections. So TURNOUT and take someone with you to vote! And if you have any disposable income left after this GOP-e orchestrated primary, please send something to Newt Gingrich.

__________________________****________________________

Low turnout expected in R.I. primary " In one week, Rhode Islanders will select presidential candidates on their respective party ballots, though voter turnout in the primary is expected to be low.

The Rhode Island presidential primary will take place Tuesday, April 24 in various polling locations across the state.

In the Republican primary, voters will choose between Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Buddy Roemer. President Obama is the only candidate listed on the Democrat primary ballot........

Despite the seemingly decided nature of the Republican race, primaries are still important for candidates because they predict voter turnout for the general election, said Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy. “Once you cast a primary vote, you are much more likely to vote in the general election,” she said.

........ Patterson and Schiller predicted low voter turnout for the Rhode Island presidential primaries, because the general election candidates for both parties have all but been determined.

Rhode Island holds its primary for state leaders at a later date, which contributes to even lower voter turnout, Schiller said.....

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

Politics 101 - suspend campaign. Allows much more favorable and flexible use and abuse of campaign donations etc.

[Impy]

If you have money to donate to campaigns I recommend giving it to Conservative House and Senate candidates.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

That is a good idea too.

[Happy Rain]

Both Gingrich and Romney spent millions in ads calling Rick Santorum every variety of scum in existence so he owes them nothing. Even here the Santorum hate still reaches fever pitch only now it is kind of weird...

Newt/Mitt supporters: “Rick Santorum is a dirty rotten piece of rat feces who should be endorsing my candidate!”

How can we resist such sweet talk?

Rick is still on the ballots and even if he isn't campaigning any votes for him still count towards delegates and he knows that if he is going to primary President Mitt out of office in 2016 he needs to know the final extent of his support now.

He will endorse anybody but Obama when the time comes.

[Impy]

I meant to the exclusion of wasting it on the POTUS race.

[ScottinVA]

Don`t do it, Rick. Romney`s going down in flames in November once and for all. Don`t hitch yourself to that mess!

[EnglishCon]

Come on mate.

There were plenty of Santorum supporters trashing Newt, Cain supporters trashing Perry, Perry supporters trashing Bachmann, PDSers going nuts at the idea that Palin would get in the race.

You know that.

And you know what? If Rick takes a state, despite his campaign being suspended, I will cheer as loudly as you. If Rick’s supporters cross over and vote for Newt, I will cheer. If they vote for Paul, I want whatever they are smoking, but I’ll cheer.

Right now the sole task is to deny Romney the nomination.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You are off base lumping Newt with Mitt.

Newt has had tens of millions of GOP-e/Romney ad dollars going out to carpet bomb him, starting in Iowa. Rick Santorum withdrew before Romney unleashed in PA (even though Rick was/is still beating Romney in polls in many upcoming states).

Newt came in second in FL but was heavily wounded by Romney's 10 day $2M/day assault after Gingrich soundly whupped him in South Carolina. Gingrich was the winner in his "home state" of GA and came in second in Alabama and Mississippi. If Newt had withdrawn, Mitt would have rolled over the base long ago.

Give it a rest.

[Happy Rain]

Rick didn't even come close to giving as good as he got--Paul, Gingrich and Mitt just unloaded tons of PAC bucks on negative ads against him--bucks Santorum could never come close to matching. Besides,payback is a legitimate reason for anything and it feels so good;)

I'm for anybody but Romney too but it's naive denial to believe he isn't going to get the nomination now that Rick is no longer campaigning...heck Mark Levin is trying his best to help Romney beat Obama cuz he knows the GOP die is cast and Obama must be beat.

...as Rush Limbaugh said when Santorum stopped running, “The establishment won.”

[soycd]

It has to be Newt. If he were to support the Masshole he would deserve every bad thought headed his way.

[Happy Rain]

Lets see, Rick Santorum had more votes and twice as many delegates as Newt among the anti-Romney conservatives...

...wonder why? Are conservative voters gullible and stupid?

no.

[EnglishCon]

Fair enough :)

He ran one heck of a race. Outspent 10 to 1 and still nailed a bunch of states.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t fond of Newt going negative on the senator, but the senator did it first. (ick, that sounds like a preschool argument!)

[freeangel]

Let’s face it, if Santorum would be endorsing by priniples, he would be endorsing Newt. However, I fear he has made a deal with GOP “royalty” to finally endorse Romnet in exchange for getting the nod at the next GOP run.

[Ted Grant]

They won’t make a deal like that.

They may get Santorum a cabinet post, but he won’t ever be the GOP nominee.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Rick Santorum had more votes and twice as many delegates as Newt among the anti-Romney conservatives...

Then why did he drop out of the running? No guts — no glory. Not presidential material.

Face it: Newt is the ONE conservative with the guts to hang in there. This isn’t conjecture any more — it’s PROVEN. He’s the last conservative standing IN SPITE of the hardships.

Santorum could make slight atonement for being such a weenie by throwing his support to Newt (like classy Mr. Rick Perry did). But I doubt he has the spine to do it.

[Hostage]

“But we’ll be talking to both of them and we are going to go out and deal with who we believe is in the best interest of our country and winning this election and make sure that we have a conservative platform, conservative message and they follow through with that conservative message after the election.”

I think Rick gets it on Romney and this explains why Romney has been sounding like a conservative's conservative recently.

This is a not-so-subtle jab at the man about to become the party’s standard bearer. Santorum consistently would say on the campaign trail that in 2008, Romney convinced him of his conservative bona fides before he backed him and then Romney quickly changed his tune.

Yep, Rick gets it. Now we will see if Rick is just looking for the highest payoff such as a 'binding' slot as Romney's VP. But I would not trust anything Romney says but would trust Newt.

[Yaelle]

Good for him. Like any conservative, he wants to defeat Obama and isn’t keen on Romney. And what is the point of endorsing Gingrich, who will not be nominee unless Romney is found with a dead girl or live boy? He says all that between the lines.

[Hostage]

I don’t remember Newt’s people saying anything negative trash about Santorum. Can you give some examples?

I do clearly remember Newt calling Romney out for what he truly is, a Liar, a deliberate Liar.

I am a Newt supporter but at this point if Santorum were still in the race and headed for the nomination I would back Santorum against Romney and Obama. Now I am praying that Rick endorses Newt and that Newt gets to a brokered convention.

But I was disturbed by Rick’s rush to judgement on George Zimmerman. It seemed like pandering and not presidential behavior at all. What did you think of that?

[Mangia E Statti Zitto]

I remember Newt after South Carolina saying something about it being time for the conservatives to unite against Romney. I think Santorum was very offended by that.