First Tim Pawlenty’s wife and now Mitt Romney’s. Ann Romney went on the stump for her hubby in NH.
Huntsman praises the House for passing the Boehner bill and slams the others in the primary race:
Presidential contender Jon Huntsman is praising his Republican Party’s House members who hours earlier passed a hike to the nation’s debt limit and says he alone among the White House field supported the plan.
Huntsman used a speech to a national College Republicans gathering late Friday to laud House members for a deal that has been rejected by the Senate. He says House Speaker John Boehner’s Republican caucus provided specifics to curb government spending.
Huntsman, Obama’s former ambassador to China and a veteran of three GOP administrations, says Obama has failed to lead the nation and he says his Republican White House rivals stood on the sidelines during the debate.
Huntsman did throw some praise Bachmann’s way, however. Saying that he might not agree, but at least she took a stand:
“We may disagree with Michele Bachmann’s solution to the debt crisis,” Huntsman spokesperson Tim Miller tweeted, “but at least she stood up & took a stand. This is a time for leadership.”
That was seen as a backhanded swipe at Romney, who is really frustrating this dude over at The Hill:
Does Mitt Romney have anything to say about the great issue of the hour? He remains in seclusion, hiding from the debate, silent about his views, weak and timid and vacillating. What a pathetic performance from a man who aspires to the presidency who looks like the worst of Obama without the best. Romney is running as the new Rorschach. He runs from his own record, seems to be for everything before he was against everything, unless he says nothing.
Ouch.
Tim Pawlenty is hitting Florida up for cash:
TweetThe former Minnesota governor announced Friday that he’ll be taking time off from an all-out effort in Iowa ahead of next month’s straw poll for a two-day swing through Florida next week, taking him back to a state where he’s focused an intense amount of early energy — especially for a candidate who’ll need every last vote in Ames to prove his campaign’s still viable.
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He’s not copying Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 Florida-or-die strategy, but Pawlenty’s campaign has identified a so far largely uncontested donor- and delegate-heavy state as a major resource for campaign cash and support.
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“Our focus is of course on Iowa, but we’ve been to Florida a lot primarily for fundraising,” said Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant, who noted that the campaign is making a play in New Hampshire as well. “But we also have a lot of friends down there and a growing political organization.”