Mitt Romney says that he’d be honored to serve if John McCain asked him to run as his vice president.
Mitt Romney said in his first interview since departing the GOP race that he would accept the number two position on the ticket and that there is no lingering bitterness between him and John McCain.
“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included,” Romney told FOX’s Sean Hannity in a broadcast set to air tonight. “Of course this is a nation which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call … and to accept it, of course.”
According to two separate reports, Romney is being talked up as a running mate by members of the Bush inner circle. But McCain and his closest advisers have little regard for their former rival thanks to the bitter, year-long race waged between the two Republicans.
Romney says, however, that he thinks the wounds have healed. “There are really no hard feelings, I don’t think, on either side of this,” he said in the interview. “There were no pacts and so forth that make people feel like that we will never come together. Instead these campaigns are all coming together. We are supporting our nominee enthusiastically, aggressively.”
My sense is that there is indeed animosity toward Romney from the McCain camp, although it could be overcome in the interests of winning the election. It’s far from clear, however, what Romney brings to the table. While he generated support within part of the conservative movement, many social conservatives are leery of him because of his reputation as a flip-flopper and, frankly, his Mormonism.
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