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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Why endorse Romney now?

Last night Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, endorsed Mitt Romney for President. This endorsement came on the heels of an announcement that George H.W. Bush (the Elder) is going to endorse Romney as well.

Now that Romney has all but clinched the Republican nomination, what is the value of endorsing him now? To convince him that you were with him all along?

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey endorsed him back when the outcome was still uncertain, when to do so was to risk being excluded from a possible Gingrich or Santorum administration.

But now? What's the point?

Rubio of course has had great incentive to wait and then go with the winner, as his is the name most often mentioned as a Vice Presidential pick. But for the other latecomers, backing Romney seems to show a certain lack of courage. And a certain pointlessness.

In the same spirit, I hereby boldly predict that Barack Obama will win the Presidency in 2008.

5 comments:

Pete said...

You might be right about the election. In my mind right now I give it 50/50, depending on what happens between now and then and which side can drum up the most passion and hoopla. Romney never seems to be able to just let go and distinguish himself from the competition, and thus doesn't inspire people to get out of bed to go to the polling place. His choice of vice-president may be important; he needs a solid, stable, all-American type, no exotics or air-headed goofs.

John Craig said...

Pete --
I think you misread the last word of my post, I said "2008." Right now Intrade has Obama as the favorite, but I actually think Romney will beat him, not because he is inspirational to conservatives, but simply because Obama has lost the independents. And it's not as if the conservatives are not going to pull the lever for Romney because he isn't quite conservative enough; look at the alternative.

I'm assuming you're referring to Sarah Palin when you say air-headed goofs," and I couldn't agree more. Not sure if you're referring to Rubio when you refer to "exotics"; I actually think Rubio would be a very solid choice, he brings too much to the table to ignore: he's well-spoken, intelligent, relatively young, energetic, and from a tactical standpoint, he's a Hispanic from Florida, one of the four key swing states, as everybody (including me, I guess) likes to point out.

Unfortunately, the way the demographics are changing in this country, in the future it's going to br harder and harder for a conservative to win a general election.

Pete said...

Yup, skipped over that "2008" part. We'll see how things work themselves out in the coming months, if there's any surprises or other game changing events prior to the election. I also think Romney will pull ahead since the original hope and change enthusiasm has been dissipated by reality.

John Craig said...

Pete --
You're right, who knows what October surprises are in store this time around. And Obama will have ACORN and all its various cousins working on his side too.

Dave Moriarty said...

As the famous and wise philosopher Yogi Berra once opined "predictions are tough ... especially when they are about the future"

As for Rubio.. this sure is front runner behaviour.. and i agree Tough to think Rubio is really sticking his neck out here.

But I prefer the people who stick their neck out while a contest is in doubt rather than after the game.

Yogi also offered "you can observe a lot by watching" as a guide and we can learn form that as well

Where does Rubio stand on who will win the women's 100 backstroke in
the Olympics or does he prefer to wait until the race is over to make his pick. No wonder insider trading is legal for these guys these are accustomed to knowing the result before they make a prediction.

- A Yogi fan