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Republicans Coalescing Around Romney, Finally

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March 30, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Mitt Romney surely wanted the Republican dominoes to fall for him a lot earlier than April.

Like, maybe in January, after the New Hampshire primary. But he's got to like the love coming his way now.

In recent days, the former Massachusetts governor has been endorsed in the GOP presidential race by popular conservative Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former President George H.W. Bush and embraced – but not officially endorsed – by Tea Party kingmaker Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

The front-runner, campaigning in Wisconsin ahead of Tuesday's primary, also picked up the support of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on Friday. Ryan is both well-liked in the Badger State and a leading conservative economic voice in Washington.

[See photos of the 2012 GOP candidates.]

"We need to coalesce as conservatives around Mitt Romney," he said on Fox News Friday morning.

Romney is leading his three rivals in recent Wisconsin polls by seven to 10 percentage points.

The Republican race, now ending its third month of primary contests, has dragged on much longer than usual. Romney is best known as a moderate Republican from Massachusetts but has worked hard over his two presidential campaigns to burnish his conservative bona fides. Now that Romney is solidly in the lead in the delegate race, the conservative establishment that had been reluctant to weigh in is eager to end the bruising intraparty battle.

But that doesn't mean Romney's rivals are going anywhere.

[Check out U.S. News Weekly: an insider's guide to politics and policy.]

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul have continued to release campaign schedules and repeatedly say they will continue to compete until Republicans convene in Tampa at the end of the summer to officially nominate their standard-bearer.

Gingrich did concede to a Milwaukee radio station on Friday that Romney "is clearly the front-runner" and "will probably" be the nominee.

At a campaign event also on Friday, Romney's team reportedly warmed up the crowd by playing Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler,' whose lyrics Bush quoted when endorsing Romney.

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em," Bush said on Thursday.

Email: rmetzler@usnews.com

Twitter: @rebekahmetzler

Tags:
2012 presidential election,
Mitt Romney

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I like these stories about how the GOP establishment is. "now" "coalescing" around Romney. When we're they NOT supporting this dingleberry, other than 2008?

The GOP is so done this November. And if they stubbornly refuse to learn from this defeat, and nominate YET ANOTHER MCCAIN in 2016, that party will probably be swept away for all time, just like the Whigs were.

Drstudmonkie of HI 3:58PM April 01, 2012

Republicans Coalescing Around Romney, Finally?

What a load of horse crap! The only Republicans that are "coalescing" around Romney are the establishment hacks and the Tea Party imposters that lied their way into office in 2010 so that they could suck up to the establishment. As I have said many times now, Mitt Romney can not beat Obama. It's not that Obama is that good, it's that Romney is no better than Obama. Both Romney and Obama do not have a clue as to what the problem is, or how to fix it. Romney is an empty-suit robotic clown for the establishment. He will serve no purpose except to feed his own big ego. The establishment is only getting behind Romney because they are desperate, and know that Romney is harmless. All they will have to do is tell him what to do, and he will make a fine puppet for them. This is only a feeble attempt to try to stop Ron Paul's momentum before he goes to the convention and walks out with the nomination. No one cares that all of the establishment hacks (George H.W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, Paul Ryan, etc.) are supporting this idiot. The opinions of these has-been party loyalists means nothing to anyone except the truly entrenched neocons that call the shots. Even more pathetic than this are the endorsements of people who were supposed to be "the good guys", such as Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Kelly Ayote, and a host of other sell-outs that used the Tea Party to get into office so they could crap on their constituents. Unprincipled, establishment buttkissers.....that's all that they turned out to be. How they could support someone like Romney, a guy who just a few months back was not someone that any of these people had anything good to say about. Now, they are all holding their noses and drinking the koolaid.

Romney is not going anywhere folks! He will only be a sacrificial lamb like John McCain, Bob Dole, and George H.W. Bush before him. Is it any surprise that these three "losers" are endorsing Romney?

It's either Ron Paul or 4 more years of Obama. Wouldn't you rather vote your conscience and support Ron Paul, who has the "best chance" of beating Obama, than waste your vote on Romney, only to go down in flames even worse than John McCain did in 2008?

Bob Vondruska of CA 12:25AM April 01, 2012

Republicans Coalescing Around Romney, Finally?

What a load of horse crap! The only Republicans that are "coalescing" around Romney are the establishment hacks and the Tea Party imposters that lied their way into office in 2010 so that they could suck up to the establishment. As I have said many times now, Mitt Romney can not beat Obama. It's not that Obama is that good, it's that Romney is no better than Obama. Both Romney and Obama do not have a clue as to what the problem is, or how to fix it. Romney is an empty-suit robotic clown for the establishment. He will serve no purpose except to feed his own big ego. The establishment is only getting behind Romney because they are desperate, and know that Romney is harmless. All they will have to do is tell him what to do, and he will make a fine puppet for them. This is only a feeble attempt to try to stop Ron Paul's momentum before he goes to the convention and walks out with the nomination. No one cares that all of the establishment hacks (George H.W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, Paul Ryan, etc.) are supporting this idiot. The opinions of these has-been party loyalists means nothing to anyone except the truly entrenched neocons that call the shots. Even more pathetic than this are the endorsements of people who were supposed to be "the good guys", such as Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Kelly Ayote, and a host of other sell-outs that used the Tea Party to get into office so they could crap on their constituents. Unprincipled, establishment buttkissers.....that's all that they turned out to be. How they could support someone like Romney, a guy who just a few months back was not someone that any of these people had anything good to say about. Now, they are all holding their noses and drinking the koolaid.

Romney is not going anywhere folks! He will only be a sacrificial lamb like John McCain, Bob Dole, and George H.W. Bush before him. Is it any surprise that these three "losers" are endorsing Romney?

It's either Ron Paul or 4 more years of Obama. Wouldn't you rather vote your conscience and support Ron Paul, who has the "best chance" of beating Obama, than waste your vote on Romney, only to go down in flames even worse than John McCain did in 2008?

Bob Vondruska of CA 12:21AM April 01, 2012

The Ballot 2012

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