Santorum Tepidly Endorses Romney

Rick Santorum has endorsed Mitt Romney for President. Kinda. Maybe. Sort of. To say it was a half-hearted and dismissive endorsement is a reasonable assessment. He sent out an email to supporters about 11:00 PM Monday night. He claims he wanted people to see it "first thing in the morning" as they opened email. The endorsement was some 900 plus words into the email. When asked about the placement of the endorsement by tv host Jay Leno, Santorum answered that it was about writing to supporters, not really about Romney.

Because, in essence, the message was about him, not Mr. Romney. “This was a letter to my supporters – who were for me – to say, ‘Well, here’s now why I think we should rally around Mitt Romney and support him,’ " Santorum said.

  In the 12th paragraph of the email, the endorsement appeared:

Above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated. The task will not be easy. It will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. Governor Romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win this the most critical election of our lifetime.

  Clearly, Santorum is grudgingly providing an endorsement of Romney so that he remains viable for 2016. He no doubt expects prime time air time for a speech at the GOP National Convention this summer in Tampa. I hope he is denied that. Maybe he struck a deal with Romney to retire the financial debt he left the race owing.

  Santorum is not a gracious man and he is not likable. This stunt did nothing to reverse that narrative.