“Take it from this liberal Democrat: If you want an amazing leader, vote for Mitt Romney.”
A nice endorsement, but at this stage in the game perhaps not an ideal one for the former Massachusetts governor who still hasn’t quite been able to seal the deal with the GOP base.
The liberal Democrat is former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, and his 2002 seal of approval, which surfaced on the conservative website The Right Scoop on Tuesday, comes at a time when Romney is desperate to flee his more left-leaning past.
Watch the endorsement below:
Even worse? Romney returned the favor a year later. “In my view, Salt Lake City’s a better place because of Rocky,” he says in an endorsement video, also posted on the website.
In fairness, the mutual endorsements seem more technocratic than ideological: Both men cite mutual admiration built up when the two worked together on the 2002 Olympic games in Salt Lake City. Romney successfully took over as CEO of the games in the wake of a bribery scandal that many thought could derail them. He and Anderson helped to deal with public outcry and obtain adequate funding for the games.
That experience hasn’t stopped Anderson’s view of Romney from souring.
Indeed, If Romney wants to buck Anderson’s endorsement, perhaps he can point to the fact that Anderson probably wouldn’t give it again.
In June 2007, during Romney’s first presidential campaign, Anderson called Romney a “great friend,” but said he was “surprised that [Romney] flip-flopped on so many issues…like choice [and]…stem cell research[.]”
And in June of this year: “I’d like to see the old Mitt Romney come back[.]”
So there you have it: Mitt Romney is no longer a great candidate — take it from a liberal Democrat.
