With Newt Gingrich’s surge among Tea Party adherents surprising and dismaying Mitt Romney’s campaign (and a lot of other people, for that matter), the formerly inevitable nominee is now looking for a reboot, a gamechanger that will throw momentum back towards the former governor of Massachusetts. What could possibly convince conservative grassroots that Romney best represents their anti-establishment, solidly small-government and social conservative agenda? How about an endorsement from the man who once called Tea Party activists “hobbits” for opposing a debt-ceiling deal that ended up failing last month? Yeah, that will work:
Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee in 2008, is moving toward endorsing a candidate for 2012.
Republican sources familiar with his thinking say he will probably endorse his onetime political enemy, Mitt Romney.
An endorsement of Romney would make sense, given Romney’s assistance to McCain in 2008 and in 2010:
McCain considers Romney one of the most helpful surrogates of his 2008 campaign.
“He went wherever and whenever he was asked,” said a source familiar with Romney’s contribution to the campaign after the former Massachusetts governor dropped out of contention.
Romney also backed McCain in his 2010 primary against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, traveling to Arizona to stump for the senator.
The Hill might be overstating the likelihood of an endorsement from McCain, anyway, which the Romney camp should be treating with relief. McCain’s response was that he would consider an endorsement in a few months, not soon, which means he’d wait until either (a) the nomination was sewn up, or (b) a two-person race threatened to go all the way to the convention. McCain will inevitably back the nominee, and he’s smart enough to know that his endorsement now might have some unintended impact, especially on Romney, who has to fight off the perception that he’s an Establishment insider who’s only real claim to the ticket is that he’s the next in line — which was exactly what people thought of McCain in 2008.
Even so, the Romney camp is starting to get worried about Gingrich’s rise, Politico reports:
Mitt Romney, facing anxiety from some of his own supporters after sliding back to second in a slew of polls, took a series of steps Tuesday to signal he’ll get more aggressive in the final weeks before voting begins.
Romney also indicated that he’s prepared for a long slog toward the Republican nomination – a nod to supporters who are getting spooked by Newt Gingrich’s growing lead in first-in-the-nation Iowa. …
Hopes for wrapping up the nomination with a quick-strike victory, which would require a strong showing in Iowa, are fading. Romney’s comments effectively marked a public concession that the play-it-safe approach he’s held to so far this year – limiting his interviews and doing only modest amounts of retail campaigning – simply won’t cut it anymore.
Romney’s pivot toward a more forward-leaning approach comes as some of his closest advisers have expressed serious concerns to both the candidate and his high command about the state of his campaign, POLITICO has learned.
Some of his backers also privately conceded that it may now be hard to stop Gingrich’s burst of momentum in advance of the caucuses, stressing that Romney’s candidacy was always built to survive the long haul.
Romney’s sour interview last week with Fox News’s Bret Baier was the trigger for intense internal discussion, with some advisers making the case that they had to do more interviews to shake off the rust and couldn’t let rest the perception that he’s too cloistered.
Don’t count Romney out, though. His campaign is on much firmer financial footing than Gingrich’s, who is still paying off his early campaign debt. In that sense, the Gingrich surge is much more aspirational than solid, while Romney has a broad organizational base to hold onto his voters and support. Gingrich only has four weeks to build a big enough footprint in Iowa to win and attract the big donors he will need to compete in the rest of the early primary states, while Romney only has to get aggressive enough to keep the donors from committing to Gingrich before then. Expect Romney to take off the gloves in Saturday’s debate.
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