It begins: Jeb Bush endorses Romney
posted at 11:00 am on March 21, 2012 by Ed Morrissey
Jeb Bush stayed out of the endorsement business when Republicans went to the polls in Florida this past January, despite rumors that he might endorse Mitt Romney. Two months later, Bush finally made his decision — and perhaps sent a signal to the rest of the GOP to get in line:
In a statement Bush says, “I am endorsing Mitt Romney for our Party’s nomination.”
The statement reads, “Congratulations to Governor Mitt Romney on his win last night and to all the candidates for a hard fought, thoughtful debate and primary season. Primary elections have been held in thirty-four states, and now is the time for Republicans to unite behind Governor Romney and take our message of fiscal conservatism and job creation to all voters this fall. I am endorsing Mitt Romney for our Party’s nomination. We face huge challenges, and we need a leader who understands the economy, recognizes more government regulation is not the answer, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism and works to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to succeed.”
That ends one of the supposed scenarios for a brokered convention. Some had figured that the most likely non-candidate to prevail in an open floor fight would either be Jeb Bush or Mitch Daniels. Bush’s endorsement takes that off the table, and with it any reason to push for a brokered convention to get another candidate onto the ticket. Bush made sense as a way to carry Florida, a much-needed swing state in the fall, while Daniels has remained consistently hostile to any sort of run, and the GOP should carry Indiana this time.
This endorsement might start a wave of declarations for Romney, as it’s almost certainly a signal from Bush that the nomination race has to finish soon. There aren’t too many more big endorsements left to get, though, except perhaps for his brother George. A bigger and more acute question will be whether this could push Romney into the lead in Louisiana. A win there would all but finish Rick Santorum as a credible threat to Romney’s nomination. Expect Romney to push the Bush endorsement hard in the next three days and look for a quick exit by both of his competitors.
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Now there’s a dusty old name…I haven’t seen that sketch for at least ten years. Still remember it was funny!
MelonCollie on March 16, 2013 at 7:35 AM
Cheers:)
There is some amazing irony in your commentary – someone who sounds remarkably like a spoiled child calling me “juvenile” and “deliberately obtuse” for not being able to make sense of your delusional fantasies. I’ll have to leave it to others to make sense of your blatherings – which begin with the false premise- that the narcissistic Marxist grifter Obama and Romney are like ideological fraternal twins. It then wanders off into something I can’t comprehend. I gather it has something to do with being pissed off that Sarah Palin didn’t run as a third party Tea Party candidate, and thus being left with no choice but to stomp your foot, pick up your ball, and stay home? Or maybe you had Ron Paul in mind? Who the hell knows. I’m not going to waste any more time trying to make sense of your nonsensical ‘analysis’.
Buy Danish on March 16, 2013 at 8:37 AM
Romney did not rise to the occasion in the election, so why expect him to do so here?
Sherman1864 on March 16, 2013 at 11:40 AM
He lost by 3%, not a blow out, but a loss is a loss. He is a good and accomplished man who would have been a far better president than Obama who had no real accomplishments before his political life began. Romney isn’t a conservative and maybe that is why he lost but he is a respectable and humble man.
Dollayo on March 17, 2013 at 2:05 AM
He should be sorry he lost because he passed on the opportunity to unseat the Liar of Benghazi (oh, yes, where is that report now? What has the admnistration discovered?).
In a sense, this lack of political judgment disqualified him. We should have known not to nominate a person unable to beat McCain.
virgo on March 17, 2013 at 3:55 PM
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