Mitt Romney got a nice boost on his way to being the winner of the New Hampshire primary, if not the nomination:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican nomination in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
The endorsement brings two old rivals together, and marks a potentially crucial boost for Romney coming off a narrow eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night.
McCain, who won the New Hampshire primaries in both 2000 and 2008, said he wanted to “make sure we make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States of America.”
“New Hampshire is the state that will catapult him to victory in a very short period of time,” McCain said after being introduced by Romney. “That’s why I’m here.”…
So now we have a united front between last election’s standard-bearer and the candidate who was his main rival by about this point in the campaign in ’08.
This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that last time, Romney was the last hope of Jim DeMint and others on the party’s right wing as they tried to stop McCain, seen as the candidate of moderation and bipartisanship. This time, Romney is the one all the right-wingers want an alternative to. Go figure. I guess it’s just another testament to Romney’s legendary, um, flexibility.
I wish I’d been there for the announcement. I would have asked McCain whether he knows where the Navy went…
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