Friday, December 23, 2011

BUSH '41' backs Romney

'41' backs Romney

The Houston Chronicle reports:
Less than two weeks before Iowa Republicans make their crucial caucus choices on the night of Jan. 3, George H.W. Bush offered words of support, if not an official endorsement, to an old friend, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"I think Romney is the best choice for us," former President Bush told the Houston Chronicle this week. "I like Perry, but he doesn't seem to be going anywhere; he's not surging forward."
Bush said he had known Romney for many years and also knew his father, George Romney, a former Republican governor of Michigan who ran for president in 1968.
Bush said he supported Romney because of his "stability, experience, principles. He's a fine person," he said. "I just think he's mature and reasonable - not a bomb-thrower."
(snip)
Choosing his words carefully, the former president said he knew Gingrich relatively well. "I'm not his biggest advocate," he said.
"I had a conflict with him at one point," Bush recalled, alluding to the crucial moment in 1990 when a recession drove him to renege on his "no new taxes" pledge. He needed a bipartisan group of party leaders, including then-House Whip Gingrich, to stand with him.
"He was there, right outside the Oval Office. I met with all the Republican leaders, all the Democratic leaders," Bush recalled. "The plan was, we were all going to walk out into the Rose Garden and announce this deal. Newt was right there. Got ready to go out in the Rose Garden, and I said, 'Where's Gingrich?' Went up to Capitol Hill. He was here a minute ago. Went up there and started lobbying against the thing.
"He told me one time later on, he said, 'This is the most difficult thing I ever had to do.' I said, 'I didn't like it much myself, Newt.'"
(snip)
Romney, Bush said, is the "most electable," despite the flip-flopping label that his Republican opponents are trying, with some success, to drape around his neck.
"It was a charge that was used against me," Bush said. '"No new taxes'? Remember that? I don't think it's significant. He's got a record as governor, and people change their mind. I don't take that criticism very seriously."
He said he was holding back on an official endorsement "for no particular reason."
He argued that Ron Paul couldn't get the nomination — but saw a parallel in a Ron Paul third-party candidacy to his own dealings with Ross Perot.
"H. Ross," he mused. "That son of a ... gun."
Bush's camp is calling it an unofficial endorsement. There will be no press conference, but the intent does seem rather clear.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well...all I have to say is that if George H.W. Bush is endorsing Romney, and if they are buddies, all I know is birds of a feather flock together, and George H.W. Bush (Scherf) is no count...so that means Romney is no count. All these guys ever put out there is what they want you to think and believe, and they try to color your mind with propaganda. Ron Paul is likely to get the presidency too, because everyone is tired and fed up with the corruption that people like George H.W. Bush have brought to this life, and it's time for us to go against what people like him have to say. I've read so much stuff that George 41 has done while in the white house, and it is disgusting! There is a little girl named Kelly who was put in a mental institution and never let out after George 41 got done defiling her. She was the daughter of Cathy O'Brien.