In a race in which endorsements heretofore have meant little, Marco Rubio’s endorsement of Mitt Romney before the Wisconsin primary, together with the endorsements of George W. Bush and Paul Ryan, might actually have helped the former Massachusetts governor to win the Badger State. At one of Rubio’s regional Senate office openings in Florida, he took his endorsement a step further with indirect instructions to Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to exit the race. The Shark Tank’s Javier Manjarres captured the senator’s key statements:

“I actually think we’re going to have a very good nominee. I think Mitt Romney’s going to be the next president of the United States. And by their own admission, the folks running against Mitt Romney have admitted that they cannot win the primary, that the only way they can win is a floor fight at the convention, which I think would set us back in terms of our goal of replacing Barack Obama.

“So I do believe it’s time now to concede that Mitt Romney has won the Republican nomination, that he’s going to be the Republican nominee, and that if we all get behind him he will be the next president of the United States.”

At this point, Romney’s surrogates seem to be vying with one another to see who can make him sound more conservative and more invincible as the actual GOP nominee. And some Debbie Downers worried conservatives wouldn’t rally!