Most of the men who make Republican hearts go pitter-pat are now solidly in Mitt Romney’s corner.
On Friday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — whose passions include fine wines, P90X and turning Medicare into a voucher system — became the latest GOP heartthrob to throw in for Romney, the latest instance of heavyweight Republicans standing up for the frontrunner.
Announcing his endorsement on Fox News — the high-school cafeteria of GOP politics — Ryan spoke directly to Republicans still on the fence about Romney.
“I am just convinced now that if we drag this thing on through the summer, it’s going to make it that much harder to defeat Barack Obama in the fall,” Ryan said on”Fox and Friends.” “That is why I think Mitt Romney is the best guy for the job, he’ll make the best president, he has the best chance of winning — and the more we drag it out the harder it is to win in November, and that is why it’s important we coalesce as conservatives and focus on defeating the president in the fall.”
Ryan’s announcement Friday caps an onslaught of endorsements for Romney that signal the GOP establishment is done with the primaries and ready to put Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul out to pasture. But they also play into Romney’s attempt to sell himself to the conservatives who don’t yet trust him completely or consider him a full-fledged member of their club. With Ryan getting in line, just about all the men Republicans really wanted to see as the nominee are backing Romney.
Here’s a list:
⢠Jeb Bush: The former governor of Florida was one of the people Republicans were desperate to throw into the race by any means necessary (including choosing him as the nominee at a brokered convention), but Bush said no, — and joined his mom and dad in backing Romney last week.
⢠Marco Rubio: The Florida senator is everyone’s favorite vice-presidential nominee and one of the few Republicans who can bring the rank-and-file to their feet. There’s not a Republican presidential candidate around who doesn’t want this guy by his side, and Romney got him this week.
⢠Chris Christie: The governor of New Jersey was running right out in front, along with Jeb Bush, in the GOP’s fantasy primary when he formally endorsed Romney last year.
⢠Jon Huntsman: There were certainly some Americans (many of them centrist Democrats) who considered the former Republican governor of Utah and ambassador to China a presidential dreamboat. There weren’t enough of them to ultimately make much of a difference, but Huntsman tried to bring them into Romney’s camp when he endorsed Romney after dropping out of the race. He then turned out to be an ineffective surrogate, but he’s another dream Republican (to non-Republicans, at least) who’s on Romney’s side.
A few GOP presidential fantasies remain uncommitted and so far unswayed by Romney. The Washington Post‘s Aaron Blake noted they include Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Haley Barbour (R-MI) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who already endorsed Romney as much as he’s likely going to.)
But overall, Romney is working hard to show he can be the man Republicans want as their president — not the one they’re merely resigned to — in part by gathering at his side the men Republicans wanted in his place.
