Meet Romney’s New Surrogate: Ann Coulter

Say “Hi” to Mitt Romney’s new surrogate: conservative author Ann Coulter. Talking Points Memo from Iowa:

Turn on the radio here and you’re going to get a taste of how hard Mitt Romney is working to stamp out Newt Gingrich’s support with conservatives.

In a new radio ad launched by the Romney campaign in Iowa last week, Romney turns to conservative fire-breather Ann Coulter to make the case that he’s the most electable candidate in the Republican race. Having made a living off saying things that no politician would likely wish to be closely associated with, it’s an interesting choice — and a sign that Romney is going all out to cast himself as the more pure conservative choice to Gingrich.

Coulter endorsed Romney a month ago (after dissing him before that) and the Romney ad grabs a clip of her talking up her candidate on Fox and Friends in November.

“These are predictions but I think it’s going to be Romney,” she said then. “And I think Romney is the strongest candidate. And I think Republicans want to beat Obama. And Romney is the best one to do that.”

I’d bet Mitt Romney three White Castle hamburgers that having Ann Coulter as his surrogate won’t bring a flood of conservatives to his side, but as with the case of the aggressive and high-profile surrogate work done by former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu it complicates efforts by the Gingrich camp to paint Gingrich as a solid conservative (he isn’t) and Romney as someone who was once a moderate (he was).

It adds a bit of that horrible thing GOPers don’t like in their politics: nuance. It’s hard for someone to accuse Coulter of being a RINO or member of the liberal media. And she and Sununu are more than capable of responding to their own former supporters who don’t like them making the pitch for Romney.

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