By Gary P Jackson
Santorum, however, doesn’t play coy when I ask him about what his endorsement means to a fellow Republican, if anything. "Palin is the only endorsement anyone wants," he laughs. "If you ask who the most influential endorsers are, Palin is numbers one, two, and three, with maybe Sen. Jim DeMint at four. Her endorsement is the only one that matters this year. Just look at what she did for Nikki Haley."
What about Romney, the man Santorum supported in the 2008 presidential campaign? "No offense to Mitt, but he doesn’t carry the weight," Santorum says. "Mitt can help you with some finance people, maybe in some small way, but his pull is insignificant compared to Palin’s."
~ From interview of Rick Santorum by Robert Costa for National Review Online June 17, 2010
Mitt Romney is a lot like the Texas weather: If you don’t like a particular stance he has, just wait around, it’ll change. No one is more adept at the flip-flop on key issues, in an attempt to be all things to all people. Romney is a chameleon who can blend in with any crowd, by simply telling them what they want to hear. No one knows whether he means it or not, or if he even believes half of what he says. Romney is simply a cold, calculating politician, who only cares about winning an office, not about actually leading.
Romney’s latest flip-flop though is just delicious. Just a few weeks ago, we got into it with Romney’s fan boys, who were crowing and running stories about how much Mitt’s endorsement, that few even knew about, helped propel Nikki Haley to her victory in South Carolina.
Of course, the truth is a little different than the fictional spin Team Romney has been trying to sell. Yes, Romney was an early endorser of Nikki’s. When Romney endorsed her, she was stuck in forth place, suffering from poor name recognition. Nothing changed afterward.
Sarah Palin then endorsed Nikki in fine fashion, making it a national event by doing so in person. In just days Nikki was leading the pack, and cruised to a huge win. Nikki got 49 percent of the vote, just one point shy of the needed 50 percent, but she garnered almost as many votes as her three competitors combined, and will the run-off election on Tuesday by a wide margin.
Something else that happened along the way. Once Nikki Haley became the front runner, the Republican "Good Old Boy Network" went into high gear. Like Sarah Palin, Nikki is known as a true reformer, and this, of course, scares the hell out of the establishment. Nikki will upset the apple cart, much like Sarah did in Alaska. The attacks were vile, and personal.
Sarah Palin was standing with her. Offered her strong and very public support. Romney was, as usual, nowhere to be found.
Sarah is known to stick by those she endorses, not just pick safe candidates, put her name with them and move on, like noted "Profile In Courage" Mitt Romney, who actually endorsed Susanna Martinez for Governor of New Mexico, AFTER she won her primary!
Sarah also endorsed Carly Fiorina in California, and true to form, talked about her at ever opportunity. Carly went on to win her primary for the United States Senate in fine fashion.
In a recent interview for National Review Online, Rick Santorum said this:
Santorum, however, doesn’t play coy when I ask him about what his endorsement means to a fellow Republican, if anything. "Palin is the only endorsement anyone wants," he laughs. "If you ask who the most influential endorsers are, Palin is numbers one, two, and three, with maybe Sen. Jim DeMint at four. Her endorsement is the only one that matters this year. Just look at what she did for Nikki Haley."
What about Romney, the man Santorum supported in the 2008 presidential campaign? "No offense to Mitt, but he doesn’t carry the weight," Santorum says. "Mitt can help you with some finance people, maybe in some small way, but his pull is insignificant compared to Palin’s."
There’s a reason why Sarah’s endorsements matter, and Romney’s don’t. One, Sarah Palin is an actual leader, with real vision, and Romney has neither qualities, and two, if Sarah endorses someone, she’s proven that she will actually support them. People in the Republican Party see a Palin endorsement as the gold standard. She has a proven record of backing winners. Even better, she has a record of backing true conservatives.
Understandably, Team Romney is frustrated. The guy is no leader, and is often a day late and a dollar short when he does weigh in. So now, they are trying to change the subject. Just weeks ago, Team Romney was doing their best to take credit for their endorsements, acting like they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Now that reality has set in, the spinmeisters are in high gear saying that it’s money that matters, not endorsements.
Doug Brady over at C4P has something to say about this:
Immediately after Nikki Haley's overwhelming victory in the South Carolina Primary, we noted Team Mitt's panic over the credit Governor Palin received:
It appears Mitt Romney is getting a bit nervous as a result of all the well-deserved credit Governor Palin received for helping Nikki Haley in South Carolina, both in the media and by Haley herself. In fact Romney is so nervous he feels compelled to return to South Carolina to campaign for Haley before the runoff on the 22nd.
[...]
This is classic Mitt Romney. When all the mud was flying and Governor Palin publicly and steadfastly stood behind Haley, Romney was, as is his custom, nowhere to be found. Undoubtedly Romney thought he could gain some conservative cred in South Carolina by endorsing Haley in March who, at the time, was considered a long-shot conservative candidate with little chance of winning. However, after Haley's incredible surge in the polls (following, not coincidentally, Governor Palin's endorsement) and ultimate victory last night, Romney saw his plan for making inroads in the important primary state unraveling.
Recent activities on the part of Team Mitt indicate our assessment of Romney's panic was correct. Today Romney travelled to South Carolina to campaign with Nikki Haley and, while there, announced he was giving the Haley campaign $42,000. How, you ask, can he give a candidate that much money given the limits in campaign finance laws? It's easy if you're Mitt Romney. You purchase a team of lawyers to figure out how to get around the spirit of the law. Via Andy Barr at the Politico:
...lawyers for Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC discovered that multiple PACs sharing the same leadership and office space are able to contribute $3,500 each per cycle in South Carolina, according to a Romney source.
With one federal PAC and five statewide PACs each maxing out at $3,500 for Haley in both the GOP primary and general elections, Romney has contributed a total of $42,000.
This is standard operating procedure for Romney. What else can a plastic flip-flopping politician do to acquire the influence he lacks other than purchase it? Unfortunately for Romney, there's not enough money in the world for him to purchase that which he really needs: authenticity.
C4P readers may have noticed Romney's astro-turfers spamming the threads on other websites in the days immediately after Nikki Haley's victory. They repeatedly claimed that Romney, not Governor Palin, was the real endorsement powerhouse in the GOP since he purportedly endorsed 120 candidates since the beginning of the year. They even provided this link to a Romney website as evidence. What a difference a few days make. Now, believe it or not, endorsements don't really mean anything according to Team Mitt, as a Romney spokesman told Barr:
"Endorsements are nice, but Governor Romney understands that money wins elections," Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told POLITICO.
Oh, I see. A week ago Mitt was Captain America because of all the endorsements he made this year. Now endorsements may be "nice" but don't really matter, only money counts. Of course Romney's hack didn't mention all the money Governor Palin's endorsements generate for her endorsees through grass-roots contributions, but why complicate the narrative? What has happened to cause such a dramatic change in Team Mitt's attitude toward endorsements? Perhaps it's because Mitt Romney's endorsements are insignificant, as Rick Santorum indicated in an interview with the National Review.
[ .... ]
So, to paraphrase, her endorsements are golden, his don't mean sh*t. Yeah, I guess this realization may well have had something to do with Romney's change of heart on the importance of endorsements. It also explains why he had to rush down to South Carolina and hire a team of lawyers to figure out how to give Nikki Haley $42,000 for a race she's going to win easily anyway. Mitt, your erratic actions prove beyond a doubt that, although your endorsements may not matter, hers most definitely do.
Ouch! You can read more of Doug’s blistering report here.
As Doug Brady points out, Sarah's endorsements work quite differently than Romney's do. When Sarah endorses someone, people sit up and take notice. Contributions, both big and small, come in from supporters nationwide. These donations routinely surpass all goals and predictions. People understands that if Sarah is endorsing someone, they are the real deal. People TRUST Sarah's judgment on these things. This is an earned trust.
A Romney endorsement, however, generally goes unnoticed, so if any money comes from it, it's coming out of Romney's pocket, or his PAC.
Spending money and trying to buy his way in is nothing new for Mitt Romney. He tried that in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, outspending everyone, and the best he could manage was a dismal third place, in what was arguably the worst field of candidates the party has put up in a generation.
We reported earlier about Romney’s "Louisiana [straw poll] Purchase" back in April. As is the case with most of these things, a straw poll was conducted at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, in New Orleans.
The big shocker in this deal was that Ron Paul didn’t win the thing. His followers are notorious for astroturfing these deals and turn out in droves to prop him up. Many of them are paid to vote, and some are even paid for the expenses it takes to get them wherever the vote is. In this poll, Mitt Romney won by a single point over Paul.
How was this done? Easy, a Romney front group, one of many he has, paid people to go to the SRLC and vote for Mitt!
Romney spent an estimated $59, 500 in order to get headlines that proclaimed he won an absolutely meaningless straw poll. I guess he did better than Ron Paul though, who spent an estimated $95,200 to come in a virtual tie with Romney!
Now to be fair, both Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin were promoting their political action committees. We aren’t sure what Huckabee spent, but we know that Sarah was handing out tasty treats. We estimated the cost of this at around $1500.
With Romney and Paul in a virtual tie, having spent $154,700 between them, it’s interesting to note that Sarah Palin came in second behind these two, and lead the second choice balloting. Again, she was out $1500 and wasn’t asking for straw poll votes, just reminding people about SarahPAC, and soliciting donations. Tell me again who the real fiscal conservative is?
You can read all of the details here.
This is really typical of Romney though. He has little real support, and no influence on anything, so he tries to buy his way into the club. It’s well known that he resorted to all sorts of shenanigans in order to get his last book on the New York Times best seller list, where it lasted a week. Lots of bulk sales.
So far, the only thing he has done right, was by accident, when earlier in the month, he endorsed Sarah Palin for President!
Mitt Romney is not the sort we need in office. He’s a Big Government progressive. Let us not forget he gave his state the parting gift of RomneyCare, the blueprint for ObamaCare. RomneyCare, as we reported here, is an absolute unmitigated disaster.
All Mitt Romney seems to care about is getting Mitt Romney elected to office. He is the GOP establishment’s show pony, and like all of those guys tend to do, thinks it’s "his turn" to be the presidential nominee in 2012. Romney represents the absolute worst of what the Republican Party has to offer. He’s an opportunist who will do and say anything to get elected, and then fall in with the other establishment, Big Government types once in office.
Sorry, but for the foreseeable future, it’s going to be our job to get these sorts voted out of office, not elected to office. We need leadership, not pandering. We need strength, not capitulation. We need people who understand that our nation is in peril, and the old way of doing things will no longer work. We don’t need Mitt Romney.
Here’s a little something I like to dedicate to Mitt and the almighty dollar:
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