Perry endorses Romney after Gingrich signals an exit

The Hill ^ | Sink

[VinL]

Texas governor Rick Perry announced Wednesday night that he would endorse Mitt Romney's presidential bid, hours the campaign of Newt Gingrich — Perry's previous choice — announced that the former Speaker would be ending his bid for the White House.

"Mitt Romney has earned the Republican Presidential nomination through hard-work, a strong organization, and disciplined message of restoring America after nearly four years of failed job-killing policies from President Obama and his administration," said Gov. Perry in a statement released by his campaign. "So today I join the many conservative Republicans across the nation in endorsing Mitt Romney for President and pledge to him, my constituents and the Republican Party than I will continue to work hard to help defeat President Obama."

..."American jobs, economic stability and national security depend on electing a new president. Mitt's vision and record of private sector success will put America back on the path of job creation, economic opportunity and limited government," Perry said.

Perry was one of the last prominent holdouts to announce support for Romney, opting instead to stay pledged to Gingrich while the former Speaker remained in the race. Other Gingrich supporters, including fellow former presidential hopeful Herman Cain, had signaled that they were coalescing around Romney.

Romney and Perry shared some of the primary campaign's most bitter moments, with Perry accusing the eventual nominee of flip-flopping and Romney's campaign saying he had resorted to "dishonest tactics in order to prop up his flailing campaign."

While Perry struck a supportive tone in his statement Wednesday, he might not be rooting too hard for Romney to succeed. The governor said as recently as last week that he is interested in running for president again in 2016.

“Yeah, I am. I love ....

[presently no screen name]

Did you hear PERRY say this - or just read it in this article?

I’ve been reading lots of articles over the past week about Newt dropping out and last night he said NOTHING about it, just mitt’s arrogance and his plans for his campaign next week.

[mylife]

The Perry hate here is strong.

Herman Cain stabbed Newt in the back and got love here.
Come to think of it he stabbed Perry in the back too, to accolades.

[presently no screen name]

But the physical pain is palpable.

I have no pain - perhaps if you $upported Newt you wouldn't either. I did the right thing, no pain, no remorse, clean hands.

Let the weak suffer and live with pathetic maybe's and maybe scare our enemies in the UN at least a little bit. After all, you never know what a LIAR will do. Only what he is capable of - deceiving.

[Mountain Mary]

Don’t forget the fact that Mittens ran one of the most dishonorable, unprofessional, mean spirited and underhanded primary campaigns in recent history.

GOP-E’s that I know claim it is all part of the process. I say it reveals the true character of a person. F for Fail, Romney.

[presently no screen name]

Just wondering - did you actually HEAR Newt say he is all over? Or you read it?

[Republican Wildcat]

I won’t be voting “for” Romney, only against Obama. That’s a real shame, really. I’m not sure what kind of SCOTUS nominees Romney will put up...but already know what kind Obama will. That’s about the best I can say...

Regardless, instead of sitting on the sidelines or having bitterness things didn’t go our way and engagin in scorched earth as some may want to do out of spite, it would probably be best to ignore Romney and focus energy to positive things, like individual conservative House / Senate candidates to make the Congress as conservative as possible, whether Romney or Obama is in there come next year. There’s a special election coming up in AZ soon, for example, with a very good conservative in Jesse Kelly who would be worth peoples time and money to support. Other opportunities for positive action will certainly be forthcoming.

[samtheman]

Do a search on my name. Earlier today a posted a quote of him basically saying it, not exactly “it”, but so close you’d have to have the IQ of a paulbot not to get it.

[freedumb2003]

>>I have no pain - perhaps if you $upported Newt you wouldn’t either. I did the right thing, no pain, no remorse, clean hands.<<

It was worse than that — I was a Santorum guy (and before that a Cain guy and before that a Palin guy).

The pain comes from the practical realization we have to vote for Romney, since any other vote is a vote for obozo.

If that doesn’t hurt you then you aren’t seeing the situation clearly.

[freedumb2003]

>>Just wondering - did you actually HEAR Newt say he is all over? Or you read it?<<

His campaign announced it will be over next Tuesday (probably to get the $ needed to backfill the $5M he is in the hole).

Don’t hold out any hopes.

[VinL]

PNSN, Newt didn’t say specifically that he was dropping out- but he did say Romney will be the nominee. Here’s a link to his speech today- it’s 37 minutes long. It’s worth listening to- he was excellent.

I was hoping to hear something that would indicate that he was staying in- but to my ear, I heard the opposite. You can check it out.

http://electad.com/video/newt-gingrich-campaign-event-in-kings-mountain-north-carolina-april-25-2012/

[freedumb2003]

>> Personally, I can’t vote for an abortionist/homosexualist statist. No way in hell.<<

As opposed to a socialist who wants to destroy 200+ years of the greatest nation and force for good ever seen in the history of humankind?

That is the pain of which I speak. It is worse this time than in 2008 — at least then we could point to a handful of McCain perspectives that were in accord with Conservatism.

You have been crystal clear that you won’t support Romney. I appreciate and respect that. I just don’t see a way out.

IMHO the only strategy left for us is to FORCE Romney to be a Conservative.

I suspect I am not alone in feeling physical pain between now and November. Can you cut us some slack or think about a new strategy where we can relink our collective Tea Party/Sons Of Liberty perspective?

But this is your forum and I won’t try to shout you down (a useless endeavor). Many of us are now in the wilderness and see only one set of prints in the desert...

[Maurice Tift]

  Fantastic, so I actually can stay home when the primary finally comes to Texas.

  Turnout will be really low. Just vote for Ron Paul and no one came blame you for Mitt Romney.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

Vote for conservatives in all of the other political races, at each and every level, and vote for Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party for ‘12 POTUS, as a “protest vote” against the major political parties! Don’t allow the left to win, overall! Also, BO as POTUS along with a conservative U.S. House, a conservative U.S. Senate, conservative state legislatures, and conservatives all the way down to the most local levels of political office will prevent BO from doing as much harm to the entire country as he could end up doing with too many leftists from both major political parties winning in ‘12 and beyond, instead!

[1010RD]

I agree with you. The best thing about Perry is that he’s from a large dynamic and successful state. That’s a solid contrast, but I don’t know what happened to him during the debates - bright lights? crowds? national media?

[Maurice Tift]

   IMHO the only strategy left for us is to FORCE Romney to be a Conservative.

  We have to elect as many real conservatives to the House and Senate as possible, because no one will ever force Romney to be a conservative. Even though he has a usb port in the back of his neck, he can't be re-programmed. Sadly, he is what he is and based on his previous actions (not his words) he is anything but a conservative.

[Victoria Delsoul]

It’s called politics. Are you so naive that you don’t understand how politics works?

Once the party gets a likely nominee, it is traditional for the members of the party to support their nominee.

That it’s not being a clown or a sellout, but it is simply the business of politics.

Santorum pretty much endorsed Romney yesterday on The Piers Morgan show when he said "He's the person that is going to go up against Barack Obama it's pretty clear and we need to win this race. We need to beat Barack Obama." Santorum will meet with Romney next week to work out the details of his formal endorsement. Newt spoke with Romney over the phone today and promised him to help him defeat Obama, and find ways to try to be helpful.

I don’t like Romney - but hell NO, I won’t be voting for Obama, and I won't be sitting at home soiling my panties, either, so I'll come out to vote and do my part to run Obama out of DC!

[LibsRJerks]

After seeing that stunt Obama pulled on the Jimmy Fallon show yesterday ... I’m almost to the point I would pull the level for Romney JUST TO RESTORE the dignity of the presidency, alone.

Romney is bad ...but I’m pretty sure he won’t “slow jam” the news.

[Lazlo in PA]

Perry is backing Romney? That is unbelievable. I was sure Perry was an Obama backer last time. Oh well, everyone else is on the Romney bandwagon, why not Perry as well.

Perry is so hot.

[eak3]

Good job Perry on waiting till theres one candidate left before endorsing one. Is Santorum breathing a sigh of relief now that he doesn’t have to piss off the Tea Party by endorsing Romney with Newt still in it? Seriously every single politician in Washington can go straight to hell!! All they do is feed us big plates of steaming S**t and we all just smile and eat it.

[af_vet_rr]

IMHO the only strategy left for us is to FORCE Romney to be a Conservative.

Just like people were going to force George H. W. Bush to be a Conservative? Guess what? George W. Bush had his cronies, and he increased the cost of government, and turned it over to Bill Clinton.

Just like people were going to force his son, George W. Bush to be a Conservative? George W. Bush topped his old man - not only did he bring in his cronies, but he brought in some of his dad's cronies, and what did we get? We got the biggest, most expensive, most powerful, and most intrusive federal government ever, which is then turned over to Obama, who decides that he can grow the government even more than George W. Bush.

We've had 24 years of these shitty Big Government GOP-e candidates - George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, and now Willard Romney.

They don't give a damn about conservatives - for 24 years I've bent over and like a good little Republican voted for the damned RINOs, and all they do is lose to Democrats or grow the government and make it more powerful and intrusive. And then lose to Democrats. And now we have a Big Government RINO who supported abortion, gun control, and gay homosexual marriage as Governor.

For 24 damned years, I've compromised, and held my nose and voted for these GOP-e scumbags because they are supposed to be better than the Democrats, but all they do is lose to those Democrats or make the government more powerful. All they've done is abused us Conservatives.

If the GOP-e wants to win, it damned well better compromise and find another candidate, because I will not support Romney. I'm done bending over and voting for candidates like a good little sheep just because they have an (R) next to their name.