Santorum Endorses Romney In Late Night Email
Just under a month after dropping out of the Presidential race, Rick Santorum endorsed Mitt Romney in perhaps the most impersonal way possible:
Rick Santorum has officially endorsed Mitt Romney, and notified his supporters in an email sent Monday night.
In the email, the former presidential candidate cited his Friday meeting with Romney in his hometown of Pittsburgh as a reason he finally got behind the presumptive GOP nominee.
“On Friday, Governor Romney came to Pittsburgh for an over-hour long one-on-one meeting,” Santorum said in the email. “The conversation was candid, collegial and focused on the issues that you helped me give voice to during our campaign; because I believe they are essential ingredients to not only winning this fall, but turning our country around.”
The email thanked supporters and was sent in separately to various backers. The letter said the issue of “endorsement did not come up,” but the former Pennsylvania senator has heard whether he should weigh a “formal endorsement” or not.
“Thank you for your counsel, it has been most helpful,” Santorum wrote in the email. “However, I felt that it was completely impossible for me to even consider an endorsement until after a meeting to discuss issues critical to those of us who often feel our voices are not heard by the establishment: social conservatives, tea party supporters, lower and middle income working families.”
Santorum said that in the meeting he “felt a deep responsibility to assess Governor Romney’s commitment to addressing the issues most important to conservatives, as well his commitment to ensuring our appropriate representation in a Romney administration.’
He said he was “impressed” with the presumptive GOP nominee’s “deep understanding of this connection and his commitment to economic policies that preserve and strengthen families.”
In the lengthy email, Santorum encouraged Romney to “add more conservative leaders as an integral part of his team.”
“And you can be sure that I will work with the governor to help him in this task to ensure he has a strong team that will support him in his conservative policy initiatives,” Santorum said.
Santorum told his supporters he intends to “keep lines of communication open.”
“Above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated,” the letter read. “The task will not be easy. It will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. Governor Romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win this the most critical election of our lifetime.”
The fact that this came in an email and not a joint appearance with Romney indicates to me that Santorum wasn’t able to get much of anything from Romney when the two met last week. He’ll speak at the convention, no doubt, but the odds are that he won’t exactly have a prime speaking slot. Perhaps he should’ve gotten out sooner.
Really?
I would have bet anything that Santorum was going to endorse Obama.
I am shocked, shocked.
If all Santorum had wanted was a prime speaking slot, then yes, but then that really wasn’t his goal, was it?
@ PJ…
No…his goal was to prevent man-on-dog sex.
Bingo!
It’s also pretty clear, reading between the lines, that Santorum still is quite the bitter man over having lost the primary. Hell, even John McCain in 2000 managed to swallow his pride and his anger over the South Carolina fiasco and formally to endorse Bush at a televised joint appearance. That Santorum here couldn’t follow suit, despite a month within which to decompress, speaks volumes about Santorum, doesn’t it?
Santorum is going to be on “The Tonight Show” tonight. Will him telling Leno’s audience–and the subsequent playing of the clip all over the place tomorrow–that he’s backing Romney be a public enough endorsement for you? Or does anything less than climbing on a stage and groveling before Mittens, while gushing platitudes that any political junkie knows is complete BS but casual viewers won’t comprehend, not “ringing” enough to your mind’s eye?
They don’t play clips of Leno outside NBC. I’m not even sure they play clips of Leno on NBC.
I’m guessing he got what he really wanted. Mainly someone to pay off his over a million dollars in campaign debt.
Actually Davebo….
I’m guessing he DIDN’T get what he wanted out of the last-ditch face-to-face. Thus the less-than-tepid endorsement. Not sure what he really wanted…a Constitutional Amendment banning man-on-dog sex perhaps…but he has no choice but to endorse.
It’ll be interestig to see if Leno can get more from him than the stenographers posing as journalists and pundits.
@Hey Norm:
Oh yeah, because if there’s thing Leno is known for, it’s his hardball interviewing. =P
@ Stormy…
It isn’t that Leno is a great interviewer…it’s that what passes for journalism is so friggin’ weak.
But didn’t Leno recently generate a minor news scoop??? Not sure….
Couple of things Mataconis seems unable to appreciate — honor and consistency.