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1. “I am endorsing him…Now Mitt is not a perfect candidate. He has a number of problems. It’s hard for him, for blue collar families like mine to identify with him. It’s hard for economic conservatives to identify with him. He needs to do more to reach out to Latinos…”
~Former Republican NY Governor George Pataki, “endorsing” Romney and then telling the world how weak he is as a candidate.

2. “Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again. But I will say, if you look at the exit polling data in Illinois, you’ll see that Mitt Romney is broadly acceptable to most of the factions in the party. You have to do that in order to become the nominee…”
~Romney Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom, describing his boss as a man who can’t make up his mind.

3. “I am confident, with the leadership and the backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around.”
~Republican Senator John McCain, making a freudian slip. It’s not a good sign when one of your biggest supporters praises your opponent instead of you.

4. “There are a lot of other people out there that some of us wish had run for President, but they didn’t. I think Mitt Romney would be a fine President, and he’d be way better than the guy who’s there right now.”
~Republican Senator Marco Rubio, wishing there were another candidate to pick from. This is one of my favorite “endorsements” because it comes from someone whom many have speculated would be a candidate for Romney’s running mate. Rubio says he supports Romney, he just wishes he could endorse someone else.

5. “Women don’t care about contraception, they care about jobs and the economy and raising their families and all those other things…⁠”
~South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, making a claim that hurts Romney among women. Okay, so this isn’t an endorsement but when one of your “supporters” says something like this at a time when you really need to convince women you care about them, this kind of statement isn’t a good sign.

6. “He’s not a bold decision maker like Newt Gingrich is. Every time I talk to him, he says ‘well let me think about it.’ … He’s like Obama.”
~Romney supporter Sheldon Adelson, describing his new favorite Presidential candidate as a weak man who can’t make decisions and then compares him to the man Republicans want to defeat. It doesn’t get much more disastrous than that.

7. “I do know that all of the Michigan delegation worked very hard as related to the revival of the auto industry. There was really a choice between bankruptcy and liquidation. There was no one that was willing to come up not only with the cash to keep them afloat but also to serve the warranties of everyone, you and I that drive all these cars. There was no one that could have picked up those pieces other than the federal government. [The auto bailout was] ⁠bipartisan from the get-go. [Without it,] Michigan would have hit 40 percent unemployment rates.”
~Republican Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, endorsing Romney and then disagreeing with him about the auto bailout which has been a major Romney attack point. Romney believes Detroit should have been allowed to fail. Some of his “supporters” apparently disagree.

8. “While I also admire his opponents, it is now clear that Mitt Romney is the candidate most able to defeat Barack Obama in November. This election is too important to lose and that’s why I urge my fellow Republicans to join me in supporting Mitt Romney.”
~Former Hewlett Packard CEO and failed GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorino, not exactly making a confident endorsement.

9. “I think it’s an overblown discussion. Why spend your time living in the past? Why shouldn’t we be asking these candidates to tell us how are we going to create jobs going forward? I would have had some differences on how they did it, but I’m not going to second-guess it. The more important thing is the results. And the auto industry is doing very well today.”
~Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, endorsing Romney, but like Fred Upton, he disagrees with Romney about the auto industry bailout.

10. “The Republican Party is fortunate to have many candidates who are well-qualified…Last May–three months before Gov. Perry announced his candidacy–I contributed to Gov. Romney’s campaign and committed to supporting him. Both candidates have impressive records of creating jobs and controlling spending in their home states. My support of Gov. Romney does not lessen my regard for Gov. Perry.”
~Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, endorsing Romney, but still longing for Rick Perry. Again, not a ringing endorsement for Romney.

11. “Mitt Romney and I don’t agree on every issue and certainly housing is one of them. When you look at what is going on here in Southern Nevada, you can’t say you got to let the housing market hit bottom. We have been bouncing along the bottom for years. And the fact is we have to do everything possible to: 1) keep people in their homes and 2) get people who are out of their homes back into their homes.”
~Republican Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, endorsing Romney, then distancing himself from Romney’s call to let home foreclosures hit the bottom.

12. “This is a pretty critical year. There are big decisions for the country to make and … I think we would be well-advised as Republicans to start getting behind our eventual nominee.”
~Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, endorsing Romney, but can’t bring himself to even mention the name of his fellow Mormon.

13. “Well, you know, I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out because he is not!”
~Ann Romney, responding to a question about why her husband is seen as “stiff,” during an interview with Baltimore radio station WBAL. Again, not an actual endorsement, but apparently, even Ann Romney knows that Mitt is everywhere on his beliefs. Mitt’s wife kind of harmed him with this comment.

14. “The more we drag it out, the harder it is to win in November. … I think we’re entering a phase where it could become counterproductive if this drags on much longer.  And so that’s why I think we need to coalesce as conservatives around Mitt Romney.”
~Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, just thinking that Republicans need to endorse Romney, and that’s just because he’s tired of the primary. Again, not exactly a ringing endorsement.

15. “Santorum connects with some people. Unfortunately, my guy has a hard time doing that.”
~Former AZ Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen, endorsing Romney and then tearing him down.

16. “Gone are the days when the Republican Party used to put forward big bold visionary stuff…We’re gonna have problems politically until we get some sort of third party movement or some alternate voice out there that can put forward new ideas.”
~Former Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, saying that we need a third party not long after endorsing Romney. Also implying that Romney is not bold, nor a visionary leader.

17. “He may not be Mr. Personality, uh, you know, this is a guy who gives a fireside chat and the fire goes out.”
~Former GOP Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, endorsing Romney and then announcing how bland and boring Mitt is.

18. “I think the worst campaign I’ve ever seen in my life.”
~Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Romney campaign, just before endorsing him.

BONUS: Even though he hasn’t endorsed anyone yet, if Rick Santorum ever endorses Romney, this quote will be very hard to spin.

19. “Pick any other Republican in the country. He is the worst Republican in
the country to put up against Barack Obama.”
~Rick Santorum, calling Mitt Romney the worse Republican anyone can possibly pick to be the nominee. Priceless.

Clearly, a lot of Republicans just aren’t into Mitt Romney. The base of the party just can’t bring themselves to fully support a man who has basically lied to everyone up and down the political spectrum. One day Romney supports a liberal position and then within the same day he instantly changes to the conservative position. It’s obvious that this guy is willing to pander to anyone if it gets him in the White House. As a result, we really don’t know where Romney stands on the issues and if he were to become President he’d be dangerous because he would be so incredibly weak that just a little pressure from one side or the other could result in Romney not being able to take a strong position on an issue. That puts the nation in a very vulnerable position. Romney is a flip-flopping, hypocritical, boring, unrelatable politician who doesn’t even have the full confidence and support of his base. When Barack Obama ran for President in 2008, he received ringing endorsements from not only his greatest opponent, Hillary Clinton, but from legendary Democrat Ted Kennedy. These are what real endorsements look like.

“The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength, and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States. Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him. And I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me. I have served in the Senate with him for four years. I have been in this campaign with him for 16 months. I have stood on the stage and gone toe-to-toe with him in 22 debates. I’ve had a front-row seat to his candidacy, and I have seen his strength and determination, his grace and his grit. In his own life, Barack Obama has lived the American dream, as a community organizer, in the State Senate, as a United States senator. He has dedicated himself to ensuring the dream is realized. And in this campaign, he has inspired so many to become involved in the democratic process and invested in our common future. Now, when I started this race, I intended to win back the White House and make sure we have a president who puts our country back on the path to peace, prosperity and progress. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do, by ensuring that Barack Obama walks through the doors of the Oval Office on January 20, 2009.”
~Hillary Clinton, proudly endorsing Barack Obama during her concession speech in June 2008. Rick Santorum wouldn’t endorse Romney when he ended his own campaign earlier this month. That speaks volumes.

“Let there be no doubt: We are all committed to seeing a Democratic President in 2008. But I believe there is one candidate who has extraordinary gifts of leadership and character, matched to the extraordinary demands of this moment in history. He understands what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the “fierce urgency of now.” He will be a president who refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter who cares passionately about the causes he believes in, without demonizing those who hold a different view. He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to “the better angels of our nature.” I am proud to stand here today and offer my help, my voice, my energy and my commitment to make Barack Obama the next President of the United States.”
~Edward Kennedy, emphatically, definitively, and proudly endorsing Barack Obama in January 2008, months before the Democratic primary would come to an end. That’s what a true blue endorsement looks like.

I really can’t think of any Republican who has given an endorsement like these to Mitt Romney. Can you? If tepid endorsements are the best the Republicans can do, they are in serious trouble. As Jon Stewart said, Republicans need to fake it better. But they can’t. They know Mitt Romney is not the candidate they want and it certainly shows. But the Republican Party is so desperate to win in November that they’ll pick anyone to face President Obama, even if that person is a two-faced say-anything individual named Mitt ‘The Flipper’ Romney.

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