This is really a nonstory since the Bush family has made it clear they are all supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for President. And if you took out Romney’s pivots to make best buds with Tea Party movement members and talk show hosts, he was almost the same kind of (more center-right to center) Governor in Massachusetts as GWB was in Texas. But now it’s official:
“I’m for Mitt Romney,” Bush told ABC News this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him, after he gave a speech on human rights a block from his old home — the White House.
Bush’s endorsement isn’t a surprise, given that Romney is virtually the Republican Party’s nominee. But the 43rd president has been absent from the 2012 campaign and hasn’t made any public comments showing his support for Romney.
Romney did get the formal backing of Bush’s parents, President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, in March.
People who worked in the Bush administration say they doubt the former president will be campaigning for Romney this year. Even in his post-presidential life, Bush still gets a lot of the blame for the poor economy, according to polls, though he has become more popular since leaving office.
ABC News gives us this link to other “lackluster” endorsements for Romney. And the lack of GOP excitement over Romney is quite evident.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.