Romney trying to gain foothold in CA politics by backing Whitman

[Mr. Morden]

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[Rob]

She controls the Mormon vote now, but how will she fare among the other 98 percent of Californians?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     That was dumb. Hopefully Poizner will win.

[paul718]

     That was dumb. Hopefully Poizner will win.

I thought it was dumb too, until I remembered that Whitman was one of his earliest backers for his '08 run.  I honestly think it has more to do with personal judgment and reciprocating than setting up for 2012. 

[Keystone Phil]

It's really a shame that I prefer Whitman to Poizner. I really wanted a reason to root against Mitt.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     That was dumb. Hopefully Poizner will win.

I thought it was dumb too, until I remembered that Whitman was one of his earliest backers for his '08 run.  I honestly think it has more to do with personal judgment and reciprocating than setting up for 2012. 

     Ah, well that makes more sense.

[Lunar]

I haven't read a single post in this thread, but I'm sure 90% of the people are ignoring:

1) Whitman was a key, huge, Romney backer in in '08, and a moderate backer of McCain afterwards.  If Romney did anything BUT back Whitman, the likely GOP nominee for CA's governorship (depending on how many billions she and Poizner spend), it would be almost a scandal.

 Mittens would  be committing the worst of political sins.

2) There's no #2, seriously, get real folks

[pbrower2a]

Mitt Romney 2012 is John McCain 2008 with neither the war record nor any populist tendency. He had a political organization in California suitable for winning a statewide primary in most years, but his organization will not be strong enough to flip California in 2012.

Obama won California with a large double-digit margin, and he would have to have an incompetent, ineffective, counterproductive, or corrupt administration to lose California to any Republican challenger.

[Josh/Devilman88]

Mitt Romney 2012 is John McCain 2008 with neither the war record nor any populist tendency. He had a political organization in California suitable for winning a statewide primary in most years, but his organization will not be strong enough to flip California in 2012.

Obama won California with a large double-digit margin, and he would have to have an incompetent, ineffective, counterproductive, or corrupt administration to lose California to any Republican challenger.

I believe they are talking about the Republican Primary in 2012, not the GE.

[Mr. Morden]

Meh, I know that Romney isn't doing this just for the purpose of gaining a foothold in CA politics, but I couldn't think of a good headline.  The point of this article is not simply that Romney is backing Whitman, but that much of Romney's political infrastructure seems to be parking itself in CA for the next two years in order to get Whitman elected.....basically, to give them something to do before Romney's 2012 campaign gets into gear.  Whitman's campaign for CA guv has become the premiere race that Romney-world is focusing on in 2010.  If she actually wins, then of course we can expect some kind of boost for Romney's chances in the 2012 CA GOP primary.

But all of that is difficult to fit in a thread title.....