GOP presidential endorsement: Mitt Romney

To be quite honest, we never intended to make this endorsement, and we did not intend to make an endorsement at this time.

However, with the rise of Sen. John McCain's stock and with Super Tuesday coming up, we feel we have no choice but to offer our endorsement to the former Massachusetts governor and Olympics chairman, Mitt Romney, for the Republican presidential nomination.

We are truly fearful that the nation will have to choose between two liberals in this fall's election. That will be disastrous for the country.

Romney wasn't our first choice for this endorsement. The truth is there is not a single true, pure conservative in the GOP race. All have faults and points in their past that keep them from claiming the Reagan mantel. However, we examined the pluses and minuses of each of the legitimate contenders and had come to a consensus to endorse Rudy Giuliani. Yes, the former New York City mayor has his shortcomings, particularly on social issues, but he is a strong law-and-order and fiscal conservative, and we took him at his word that he would appoint Supreme Court justices and federal court judges in the mold of Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Roberts. Plus, Giuliani lived the Sept. 11 experience like no other politician and he has the most valid reasons for wanting to prevent a similar, subsequent attack.

But with Giuliani dropping out this week (and disappointingly supporting McCain), we have no choice but to throw our endorsement to Romney.

John McCain is not a conservative. In fact, we're not even sure he's a Republican. His support of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law was a boon to Democrats. That law makes it harder for Republicans to get their messages out and gives a louder voice to the liberal media. (Is anyone surprised that the most liberal newspapers are endorsing McCain)?

Most conservatives oppose loose borders and giving amnesty to illegal aliens, but that's what McCain wants.

He opposed the Bush tax cuts.

He wants to treat captured terrorists with kid gloves.

And so on.

We honor McCain's military service and especially his time as a prisoner of war during Vietnam. But at the time when this nation needs a strong conservative leader, he is exactly the opposite of what we need, yet Republicans are rushing headlong to coronate him.

Quite frankly, it disgusts us to see Republicans, who are supposed to be conservatives, flocking to this RINO who has abandoned so many of our core principles. We cannot believe that he appears to be on the fast track to nomination. And we seriously have a hard time figuring out who'd be worse for the country as president, McCain or Hillaryobama.

Rush Limbaugh had a novel thought last week: If the country is going to go to hell over the next four years, it might as well be under a Democrat so the Republicans don't get the blame.

Our support for Romney comes almost by default. There are certain aspects about his record that give pause. But he is not McCain, and definitely is not as liberal as McCain, and right now that's the best things he has going for him.

We haven't been impressed at all with Mike Huckabee, so we didn't give him much thought, and Ron Paul is an absolute kook and hardly a true conservative (due to his lack of support for national security and defense), so he never got a second look. We had high hopes for Fred Thompson, but learning of his support for McCain-Feingold turned us against him even before he bowed out. So we choose Romney pretty much by default as the anti-McCain.

If you have Republican friends or relatives in any of the Super Tuesday states, please contact them and tell them to vote for Mitt Romney. We must nominate a conservative and keep the liberal RINO senator from Arizona from being our nominee.