2012: Bill Clinton endorses Romney

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Let's say Bill Clinton, out of personal hatred for Obama, decided to endorse Romney. I assume they wouldn't have allowed him to speak at the RNC like Zell Miller or Lieberman, but could it have moved any votes?

[TNF]

This would literally never happen

[Brewer]

This would literally never happen

[Beet]

I don't think so. While it's true that, IMO, Clinton netted Obama a huge number of votes in 2012, especially with his economic speech at the 2012 convention, I don't think he would have ended up helping Romney if he endorsed him. The reason being that the massive backlash against him in that case from his own party would have been so great, that it would have drowned out any message he had supporting Romney. It would have become all about Bill, instead of Obama and Romney, and probably would end up just energizing Obama's base. Further, I think it would have been seen as unhinged personal animus rather than an endorsement on the merits and that would have undermined its effectiveness as well.

[The Other Castro]

This would be the equivalent of someone like Rick Santorum endorsing Obama: It would be more about the endorser than the endorsed. Rather than moving votes, the effect would be that people would wonder if the mental state of the endorser was ok.

[Jerseyrules]

Clinton endorsing Obama and working hard on his behalf no doubt served to win over at least a few votes and energize the base a bit.  So something comperable would be Reagan not dying/getting Alzheimer's and going out on the campaign trail to stump hard for Mitt.

[NewYorkExpress]

This is the equivalent of Hillary endorsing McCain in 2008... A disaster for Obama that never would have happened.

[Jerseyrules]

Clinton endorsing Obama and working hard on his behalf no doubt served to win over at least a few votes and energize the base a bit.  So something comperable would be Reagan not dying/getting Alzheimer's and going out on the campaign trail to stump hard for Mitt.

He would be over 100 years old- he was in good shape physically but I seriously doubt he would be doing much at that point.

Yeah, I get that.  I was just trying to draw a Republican parallel to Bill's role as surrogate for Obama