If Mitt Romney can’t start locking up the GOP nomination now, he may never be able to. The former Massachusetts governor’s charmed path toward the presidential nomination was made even smoother Tuesday when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie opted out of a campaign and recommended that voters choose the candidate with the “best chance” of beating President Barack Obama.
No white knight from Trenton, N.J., or anywhere else is riding into the race as the establishment’s savior. Romney’s would-be chief rival for the nomination, Rick Perry, is dropping in the polls amid doubts from conservatives and pragmatists. And the one candidate on the rise, Herman Cain, is running for president in between stops to hawk a new book.
“In tax policy, this would be known as the unlocking effect,” former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said about the effect of Christie’s decision. “A lot of folks who’ve been waiting to see other candidates get in the race will begin moving to declared candidates.”
Crowed Romney adviser Ron Kaufman: “This is the end of ‘Waiting for Superman.’”
But for all the same reasons Christie’s decision ends the uncertainty that hovered over Romney, it also launches a frantic period for his campaign. He’s now under intense pressure to consolidate the Republican establishment behind his candidacy and build up the coveted and self-reinforcing sense of inevitability his candidacy has lacked to date.
And there were some signs in the hours after Christie’s decision that the movement to Romney had begun.
Incoming Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford and state Rep. Chris Dorworth, who had been for Tim Pawlenty, are going to get behind Romney when he visits Tallahassee on Wednesday, according to GOP sources.
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