Last week, former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum endorsed Mitt Romney in the 13th paragraph of an 11 p.m. e-mail he sent to his supporters.
It is as weak as Romney endorsements get, but former President George W. Bush found a way to be even more... nonchalant about his support.
“’I’m for Mitt Romney,” Bush told ABC News Tuesday morning “as the doors of an elevator closed on him.”
There is no video of this endorsement. The former president did not send out a press release or hold a joint news conference.
“It’s amazing how much air you can take out of any announcement by inserting ‘as the elevator doors closed,’” comments Alexandra Petri in a blog for the Washington Post.
Former president George H.W. Bush threw his support behind Romney in a late March news conference in Houston along with his wife, Barbara Bush, and the candidate. That endorsement was uncomfortable for several reasons, including Romney’s previous comments saying “I don’t want to return to Reagan-Bush,” as well as reporters quizzing Romney and Bush about W.'s endorsement.
It’s hard to describe the awkwardness so you’ll just have to watch the video if you haven't seen it before:
Back in March, former McCain campaign advisor Steve Schmidt told Rachel Maddow he was optimistic that George W. Bush would give his whole-hearted approval. “That will be a good day for Mitt Romney,” predicted Schmidt.
Maddow was skeptical.
Tonight, on The Rachel Maddow Show, Schmidt argues that today was still “a good day” for Romney. Or at least “not an injurious day.” Schmidt offered that perhaps Bush 43 has retired from the public sphere and doesn’t care about the theater of politics anymore. Perhaps.
Elsewhere on MSNBC, to illustrate just how strange having a conversation through an elevator door can be, Rev. Al Sharpton ended his show PoliticsNation from inside an elevator.
