Posted on 11/03/2013 6:55:45 PM PST by markomalley
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could “easily” become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 and “save our party.”
Christie most recently made national news when he decided to drop a legal challenge to rulings in New Jersey state courts that declared same-sex marriage legal there. And not long before that, he changed his position on the question of whether illegal aliens should get in-state tuition rates at New Jersey state colleges. Now he backs legislation that would give that privilege to illegal aliens.
These two moves won Christie a recent article from the Los Angeles Times that described him as having "staked his place near the political middle ground."
Romney’s statement that Christie could “save our party” came even as Time Magazine’s website published an excerpt from the upcoming book “Double Down: Game Change 2012” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, that was featured above the masthead on the Drudge Report, and that describes a Republican vice presidential vetting process that resulted in Romney himself deciding not choosing Christie as his vice presidential running mate.
“Meet the Press” host David Gregory on Sunday asked Romney about the revelations in this book.
“Well, I know that the vetting people who went through that analysis and put together their report laid everything out,” Romney told Gregory, according to NBC’s transcript of the program. “But, frankly, there was nothing they found that wasn't already part of the public record and that hadn't already been dealt with effectively by Chris Christie. So there was nothing new there.”
A moment later, Romney said: “Chris, by the way, could easily become our nominee and save our party and help get this nation on the right track again. They don't come better than Chris Christie.”
“Look, I know that the Democrats will try and go after him, if he's our nominee, in every way they can,” said Romney. “But you can't argue with the kind of success he's had. He's been a governor, he's about to win I think on Tuesday pretty solidly, and his record as governor really stands out. I mean, New Jersey, after all, is a very blue state. He's a very popular governor in a very blue state; that's the kind of popularity and the kind of track record the Republican Party needs if we're going to take back the White House.”
Gregory asked Romney if he thought Christie was the “odds-on-favorite” to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2016.
“Well, I think it's kind of early to say who's the most electable and who would be the most effective candidate,” said Romney. “But at this stage, you look at Chris Christie and say, That's a very impressive guy, with a great track record, with a demonstrated ability to work across the aisle, with support of labor and blue-collar voters in New Jersey. It's a pretty compelling story. And there are some other very compelling stories: Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio.
“I mean, there's a long list of very capable people,” said Romney. “But Chris Christie stands out as one of the very strongest lights in the Republican Party.”
When pushed, Romney said he was “not going to disqualify” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whom he had omitted from his list of possible Republican candidates with “very compelling stories.”
“Does Ted Cruz stand out to you as a potential light of the Republican Party?” asked Gregory.
“I'm not going to disqualify anybody,” said Romney. :But I think I've indicated some of the names that I think are most effective in becoming elected, and we'll see where it goes.”
Christi is in the Cabal.
They must all be excised.
I’ll never vote for a demonic rat, but I’ll never vote for an East Coast Republican either. Those “folks” seem to lack the blood and guts of our Founders; the necessary willpower and deep-rooted belief to abide by and to stand for our Constitution.
I’ve had it with RINOS and squishy moderates who stand for nothing, but reelection.
Not everyone. All my voting life, I voted exclusively GOP, big offices and small. Never deviated once. Romney was my breaking point. I left the ballot unmarked. Biggest reasons (besides the fact that he was a duplicitous, flip-flopping liberal from Massachusetts):
1. His GOP-E minions’ backstabbing of Palin
2. Romney’s facilitation of homo-marriage when governor
3. Romney’s pathetic/cowardly response to Chick-Fil-A protest
4. His GOP convention outlawing the words “tea party” from being uttered.
Vote for Romney? Like, hell. I walked into the voting booth wanting not only to ‘not’ vote for him, but to punch his lights out. Ditto for his slimeball, backstabbing operatives, like Stevens and Madden. Unless the GOP veers strongly back to its grassroots/tea-party base, the chances of me ever voting Republican again are extremely bleak.
So help me, if the GOPe runs another squishy RINO, I will:
1) not vote...period!
2) vote for a third party candidate (and I could care less what Rush says about 3rd party candidates)
3) do a write in.
Let the GOPe go and hustle votes from their precious Independents, Moderates and Illegals they love so much.
Ok man. Look. My folks live in nj
Suppose it’s Christie vs Hildebeest.
You gonna stay home?
Thank goodness the dems of nj have Finally woken up
Ill tell you one thing. Christie is an asskicking dude who takes on unions and all kinds of suck ass entrenched dems media morons. Union thugs
They are so f$&$ing bad and entrenched in nj you would not believe
So look.
I love Texas and Cruz. Hope he runs. Same w lee from Ut
However Christie knows how to out argue combat and defeat lobs by the score.
In Texas and Utah everyone is on your side
Just sayin’
Screw the fag crap. The money and spending. Along with being TOUGH with the Arabs not a kiss ass is what we need
And IMO c. C fits that bill
Romney was a wimpy pantywaist who gave in to all kinds of crap in Massachusetts by comparison
By 2016. Things will be waaaaaaaaaaay more dire btw
Another loser tells people how they’re supposed to vote. I will not vote for a republican unless his name is Cruz.
Dude come on
At least with fatso we have someone who yells at the media and tells them to shut up
Hildebeest is a nightmare but prob not as bad as current
All that said if Barry makes it through term ii then it’s probably over anyway
He is that bad
I’ve held my nose and voted for the RINOs the last two elections. I won’t do it again.
(Actually, I was happy to vote for Palin. McLame, not so much.)
If Christie gets the nomination in 2016, he will not get my vote. Neither will Jeb Bush, Hillary, Biden, or any democrat.
At this point, I have favorable opinions of Bachman, Rand Paul, Palin, Joe Wilson, and a few others who have had the guts to speak out for what they believe in, not just what is currently polling well, and who haven’t been afraid to cite facts and point out that the emperor has no clothes.
“And I’m sure Meghan’s Dad will chime in soon”.....you mean the Songbird of the Hanoi Hilton? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hr37eE0nO8
I'm with you. I struggled the same as you did (and let me just say that you described that inner struggle brilliantly). I am completely done with compromising my core values and principles. Never again. I don't care how loud people scream "doom on you if you don't vote for the RINO!"
Voting for the RINO over and over again has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In short, we get what we vote for.
If Republican voters had stayed home in droves when Bob Dole ran, it might have helped the party rent a clue as to what the base actually wants in a leader. Might have taken a couple of election cycles for them to finally get the message, but perhaps they would have.
At the very least, I think we would have had a strong conservative as our nominee by the time 2012 rolled around. Now look at where we are. We're having to endure the wrack and ruin of an abject Marxist in the White House for eight years, because the GOP-e forced two liberal squishes in a row down our throats.
Well, that sh!t is over. The war to oust the liberals and country club moderates from our party is on. Never again!
Perfect for America, a 400 pound ‘tough’ guy who can’t control his impulses, yet demands everyone else does. Fits us great.
He’s already beginning his Mike Huckabee-ish transformation, I suspect by the campaign he’ll lose about 200 pounds.
Romney pulling a McCain,Bash the tea party and NBC will put you on tv
When Christy with Obama did his Dennis Rodman with dictator Kim, is when I got subconsciously disgusted.
The dictator already has journalists who have to put him in good light or they get the bullet, why then would we add and spoil these thugs with more artificial positive photo ops?
The GOPe are cowards or completely oblivious that it is a pointless exercise to redundancize the thugs... and in our case the liberal media madness.
This is why even if a dictator like Putin seem better than ours, we quickly forget that over there they have no option but to put him in a good liight and us in a bad one... and he same with our kissing the arse of the middle east islam cartel.
This is pure madness. It is not a question of liking or disliking Obama as an opinion, it is a question of countering the kind of Rodman cowardice now so mainstreamized in both parties.
I wish they came out the closet and said they are giving up and are gay... but no, these scums will milk it out and give us zero chance to those who could.
Not going to be suckered in to once again voting for a rino turd like McLame, Dole, or rumney.
GOP can go to hell.
He is a far left democrat in a car cover.
He means GOPe party.
Happy Days!
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