Mitt Romney Endorses John McCain

ABC News ^ | February 14, 2008 | George Stephanopoulos and John Berman

[2ndDivisionVet]

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos and John Berman Report: Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., today endorsed his former Republican rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The endorsement took place this afternoon at Romney for President headquarters in Boston.

Romney asked his delegates to throw their support to McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"Even when the contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the caliber of the man was apparent," Romney said, standing with McCain for the announcement at his now-defunct campaign's headquarters in Boston. "As a party, we come together."

Accepting Romney's endorsement, McCain said despite a "hard campaign" now "we move forward together for the good of our party and the nation."

Once bitter rivals locked in an acrimonious Republican nomination fight, Romney abandoned his 2008 bid following a poor showing in the Super Tuesday contests this month. Romney had won the support of many in the conservative wing of the party, but failed to overtake McCain in either delegates or the number of state wins.

The former governor made his decision to endorse today in the interest of helping McCain gain the 1,191 delegates he needs to secure the party nomination and unite the party for the general election against the Democrats in November.

Romney campaign manager Beth Myers notified McCain campaign manager Rick Davis in a telephone call today of Romney's decision, and they immediately made arrangements for an announcement in Boston this afternoon since McCain was campaigning in Rhode Island today.

After McCain's townhall meeting near Providence this afternoon, the campaign is flying to Boston for the endorsement.

Romney and McCain will meet today before they both announce the formal endorsement at a press conference.

[Elsie]

. I wonder what happens if McCain keels over before he gets the nomination. The scramble of everyone to get back in will be funny.

YA think?

;^)

[Elsie]

What a DIFFERENCE a week and a half makes!!!

---

---

 

Regardless of who you support, please vote in the new FR poll:

"Which GOP presidential hopeful do you want to see win the most delegates on Super Tuesday?"

Member Opinion
Mitt Romney	76.1%		1,034
Ron Paul	11.0%		149
Mike Huckabee	8.0%		108
John McCain	4.9%		67
	100.0%		1,358

111 posted on 02/03/2008 4:29:11 PM CST

 

---

---

 

Regardless of who you support, please vote in the new FR poll:

"Which GOP presidential hopeful do you want to see win the most delegates on Super Tuesday?"

Member Opinion
Mitt Romney	76.1%		1,034
Ron Paul	11.0%		149
Mike Huckabee	8.0%		108
John McCain	4.9%		67
	100.0%		1,358

[Elsie]

That’ll be one frosty night in hell.

[Elsie]

As we gather together today in this great rotunda, to give our respect to...

..and now a few words from President Romney:

[Elsie]

So THAT's the handshake!

[Elsie]

Where ARE you guys?

[angkor]

"Even when the contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the caliber of the man was apparent,"

Yes, McCrazy's "caliber as a man" was quite apparent when he was caught red-handed in the last big Republican debate lying through his smirking face about Romney's alleged "timetable" quote, which was read right there on the spot by the moderators and was absolutely incontrovertible as a "timetable" for Iraqi politician to meet several goals and milestones, and not even remotely about a "timetable" for military withdrawal from Iraq, as McCrazy had been asserting.

But caught with his hand deep in the cookie jar, McQueeg showed no shame or repentance. He simply laughed, acknowledged it was somewhat less than true, and said "But I'm going to keep saying it." Everyone looked at him incredulously, as if to ask "Are you crazy?!?!" But of course we all know that McQueeg is lacking a few marbles.

By the way, McCrazy used the same sort of sneering smirk in that event, that he now displays when talking about illegal alien peasant Amnesty. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll go for it again... and again... and again....whether he's President or remains a Senator.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I still want to know who this guy is named “GOP” who didn’t listen to those who “warned” him.

Fact is, if there WAS such a person, he’d be so tired of being “warned” against so many different candidates that he’d be sick of it. We were a lot better at saying who not to vote for, than backing a candidate that we could all vote for.

You can win people by convincing them to embrace conservative values, or you can try to threaten them into voting for your candidates. But the 2nd path is rarely successful, because people who would give in to threats will probably vote for the democrats anyway.

Of course, in the real world the average voter knew nothing of this “threat” that was made, and simply voted for the candidate they felt most comfortable with. And unfortunately, that was John McCain more often than any other candidate.

We had hoped it could be Fred Thompson, but he failed because (in my opinion) of his lack of interest in religion. That gave rise to Huckabee.

When Fred wasn’t the candidate, the only candidates left were Romney and Huckabee. And neither was acceptable to a portion of the base either.

So essentially, conservatives offered 5 candidates this year, NONE of whom were acceptable to all parts of the base.

Of those candidates, Romney was the closest to ESPOUSING the views of all the parts of conservatism, but he wasn’t trusted. But the average voter saw him as very conservative, and in fact many independents turned from him because of that.

The funniest part was how we all knew that picking a Senator was a bad idea, but then many of us grabbed a former senator, as if that was better than a sitting senator.

We are stuck with McCain as our nominee. Some conservatives will stay home. Some will grudgingly vote for him. Some will actively work for him, in order to pull other conservative house and senate candidates along into a winning situation.

If McCain loses, and the conservatives fail to show up, it will be the end of conservatives for a few years, because no moderate is going to let us have a conservative candidate because of our lack of loyalty. Heck, we’ve been screaming at the moderates about this for years, and payback will be sweet for them.

If McCain WINS, and conservatives fail to show up, it will be worse for conservatives, because it will prove you can win without us, if you just move to the left enough. The next candidate will make McCain look like Ronald Reagan.

If however conservatives DO support McCain while pointing out his flaws, if he loses we can use our support as a basis for pushing a more conservative candidate next time, as well as for the moderates VOTING for our more conservative candidate.

And if he wins, he’ll be beholden to us, and will have to at least try to keep us happy enough not to lose us for the next election.

Unless of course he decides to be a 1-term president.

My goal now is to elect as many republicans as possible, to try to take back the house, and to keep the democrats from 60 votes in the senate.

And I will support McCain, unless a 3rd-party challenge pops up that looks like it has a real chance at actually WINNING.

I will NOT subject the country to 4 years of Obama to “teach us a lesson”, or to “win a political victory in 2012”.

[CharlesWayneCT]

OK. Usually if a news article shows an actual quote, the quote is accurate, and if it isn’t the person being quoted would complain and there would be a correction.

So if he didn’t say it, he certainly seems to have acquiesed to being quoted as saying it.

AP isn’t some blog. And a quote isn’t some “opinion analysis”, it’s presented as a raw fact. Doesn’t make it 100%, but with the lack of correction I feel confident in quoting from it.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Around January 23rd:

Duncan Hunter Endorses Mike Huckabee:

"Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the U.S. industrial base, I see another quality of Mike Huckabee's candidacy that compels my endorsement. Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well. My personal choice is Mike Huckabee," Hunter concluded.

[colorcountry]

Good morning els.

I’m here as usual. (Its just that I’m a little later than usual)

I suppose McCain could have learned the handshake. Lots of Mormons in Arizona. Even EX-Mormons. LOL

[Ingtar]

Lamar! surprised me, pleasantly. Did you know he was one of the few to vote against the stimulus handout bill? I guess enough were voting for it that he could take cover and vote correctly.

[OPS4]

VOTE McCain or go bankrupt.
McCain 2008

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Well, I guess someone who buys Mitt Romney’s convenient ‘conversions’ wouldn’t wonder why an endorsement from Fred Thompson wouldn’t get more press than a simple line in a short AP piece about something else.

Do they have unicorns in MittLand?

[jedward]

cute :)

[cdnerds]

It is inevitable!

[cdnerds]

Shall we break out Hillary and Obama's voting record?

[Colofornian]

Re: post #222:

Joseph Smith had a liquor license to distribute alcohol from his home: "Section 1 - Be it ordained by the City Council of Nauvoo, that the Major [Joseph Smith] of the city is hereby authorized to sell or give spirits of any quantity as he in his wisdom shall judge to be for the health and comfort, or convenience of such travelers or other persons as shall visit his house from time to time."

[RichardMoore]

This means that the RINOs have taken over the party. And even when they lose to Obama they will run Romney in 2012. By then we should be looking at the NAU and exchanging our dollars for ameros.

[cdnerds]

...and that matters because? He lost in PA, he can't help us win PA, he is equivalent to every other conservative that doesn't back McCain - and the list is starting to get very very thin...