Saturday, November 5, 2011

DeMint Snubs Romney, Will Not Endorse

Heartache:
....It is this success that has led DeMint, after much contemplation, to decide that he will not endorse anyone in the 2012 GOP primaries. “I want to announce that I am very unlikely to endorse a candidate in the presidential race,” DeMint told me in an interview this weekend. The most disappointed GOP contender may be Mitt Romney, who received De­Mint’s endorsement in 2008 and could have used the senator’s support to woo skeptical conservatives this time around. Why did DeMint decide not to endorse Romney again? “It’s a different race, different people in it, different time for our country,”....

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unlikely leaves a little wiggle room if he changes his mind say, a week or two before the SC primary.

GetReal said...

Oops, that was me.

hamaca said...

Certainly any GOP candidate would be very happy with his endorsement.

As long as this is 100% his own decision, i.e. not caving to any particular constituency group, I can respect the decision not to endorse.

Unknown said...

That just makes Nikki Haley's endorsement more valuable in SC. Romney will pick that up hopefully.

Anonymous said...

oh noooo!!!Does this mean romney is doomed? He will not be the nominee?? hahaha sike!!!! Romney2012!!

Anonymous said...

Well, interesting isn't it? When people could STAND up and LEAD......they hide and wait.

DeMint's teaparty backers getting to him? DeMint's analysis is pretty thin if he thinks Gingrich, Cain, Perry, etc. are READY to turn this country around on Day 1.....IF......IF they could be Obama.

Disappointed in DeMint and his leadership. It sounds "chicken" to me.

ccr

Anonymous said...

Paul Ryan's praise of Romney's Spending Cut plan is far greater than an endorsement from DeMint. Add that to the defense by Mike Huckabee of Romney on his conversion to Pro life. Now that's super WOW! End of Story

Anonymous said...

What a coward. This shows DeMint is a man of absolutely no moral fiber. He blows with the wind.

Never again will anything DeMint has to say have any moral force.

His loss, he could have been a force for his cause in the new administration, now he is simply a man who will stab you in the back when you need his help the most.

Typical Tea Party hypocrite.

craigs said...

Actually good news for Romney as DeMint probably would have endorsed someone else this cycle. Neutral is pretty good in the short term as Mitt will pick up more of the northern and western moderates in WTA states

CraigS

Anonymous said...

You all know how I feel about DeMint, so needless to say, I don't care a hill of beans. DeMint's influence is WAY over-rated.

Plus, if the man is too weak to do what needs to be done for this country (which is to choose the most qualified man running to lead in a time of peril), then he can go jump in a lake for all I care.

Onward and upward.

-Martha

BOSMAN said...

"I am very unlikely to endorse a candidate in the presidential race"

Unlikely has such a non-definitive sound to it.

It wasn't, "I WON'T"

This gets the wannabes of his back.

DeMint WILL ENDORSE Romney before the SC primary. You can take it to the bank.

Terrye said...

Who cares? It won't make any difference anyway.

Anonymous said...

I think Demint was going to endorse romney but it leaked before he could actually announce it, so he had his people quickly say no its not true. So Demint went to plan B and says hes not endorsing anyone.

Pablo said...

I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you.

DeMint can't endorse Romney because it will piss of his Tea Party fans that he has accumulated since 2008.

Paul said...

Bosman, I hope you are right. I have held high regard for DeMint, and that would be lost if he were to end up supporting anyone but Mitt. Cain and Gingrich are unelectable, and Mitt is not only the best shot we have, but he is the only one that can really do the job. An endorsement of Perry would be the greatest folly. DeMint really has no other choice of value to make than Romney.

I hope/trust that DeMint's hesitation is due to timing rather than influence from the "anybody-but-Mitt rebels."
it really could be an effective strategy to wait to announce endorsement until about five days before the SC primary. Mitt won't need it for NH, and perhaps an earlier release might lose some impact in the wake of the Christie/Sununu announcements.

Paul said...

Further, five days would be enough notice to excite the SC voters, but would limit the window of opportunity for Rush, Levin, et al, to pour out their hate on DeMint before Mitt takes SC. Whatever happens in IA, if Mitt takes both NH (a given), and SC, then it will be an almost insurmountable task for anyone to take Florida away from him. Game over. Although I think this can be done without DeMint, it becomes a stronger probability with his endorsement.

Anonymous said...

If I had the skills with Photoshop that Bosman does I would copy Bosman's chicken picture, but take out Perry's face and put in DeMint's face.

I dislike DeMint almost as much as Harry Reid. I am quite happy that he won't endorse Romney. When Romney wins the nomination he won't be beholden at all to the Little Chicken from South Carolina.

On a side note, I really hope that Romney loses SC, but wins the nomination. That would be a beautiful thing.

Anonymous said...

wishful thinking dan

marK said...

In my opinion, DeMint's endorsement would be nice to have, but the plum SC endorsement is Nikki Haley's. It will be interesting to see whom she endorses, if anyone.

TexasConservative said...

I thought this was a good point:

DeMint said he believes that getting conservatives elected to the Senate could mean the difference between success and failure for whoever succeeds President Obama. “I want to do better for our next president than we did for George Bush,” he said. Bush “had a Congress that wanted to spend money, and if he wanted anything done, he had to agree to that spending . . . . I want our next president to have a strong conservative Senate that can push them in the right direction rather than the wrong direction. ”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/demint-not-endorsing-in-2012/2011/11/05/gIQAZxs2pM_story.html

TexasConservative said...

Here is a good video to watch where Huckabee interviews DeMint about 2012, 2008 and endorsements:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhW8U5hJ3B8&feature=player_embedded