Pawlenty Endorses Romney in Charleston

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty returned to Charleston on Monday to endorse his one-time opponent, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, in the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary.

Pawlenty was an early challenger working against Romney's nomination, but left the campaign trail after a poor showing in an Iowa straw poll last month.

In the announcement Monday morning at North Charleston City Hall, there was no mention of their competition and instead focused on the year's they spent together as governors.

"We've faced many of the same challenges and issues and have had a chance to interact and become acquainted with each other," Pawlenty said. The three words Pawlenty stressed more than once regarding Romney were "capable," "electable," and "knowledgeable."

"The next president of the United States is going to have to lead this country in a historic way, as it relates to jobs that are available to our citizens and to the economy," Pawlenty said. "Mitt Romney alone has the unmatched ability and skills and experience to be that historic leader for the United States of America."

Asked about the primary fight between the two, Romney noted the two sat down to talk before Pawlenty even got in the race.

"We've long-respected each other and my sense was that, if we had to have someone else become the nominee who wasn't me, I thought he’d be the best guy to be the nominee," Romney said. "The fact that it didn't work out for him the way he wanted to meant that it was probably a pretty natural thing for us to get together."

Romneycare now creative

The most noteworthy jab that Pawlenty made on the campaign trail was in tying Romney's leadership of a healthcare mandate in Massachusetts with national healthcare reform championed by President Barack Obama, which Pawlenty referred to as Obamneycare.

On Monday, that challenge was replaced with support for Romney's creativity in trying something different for his state.

"Gov. Romney correctly took the approach that states should try different things, innovate, be the laboratories of democracy," Pawlenty said. "But he has also been very clear with me and very clear with the country that when he is president, on day one, he will do everything he can to repeal Obamacare."

Romney took a new stab at defending the Massachusetts healthcare mandate by pointing to several other state mandates.

"In Massachusetts, we also mandate that you have to have auto insurance. We mandate kids have to go to high school," Romney noted. "Some states, Texas for instance, mandates that young girls have to get inoculated for sexually transmitted diseases."

That last point was a jab at Romney’s current GOP primary challenger, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who called for a state requirement that young women get the HPV vaccine, due to the link between herpes and cervical cancer.

"There are a wide range of mandates," Romney said in going back to the Massachusetts healthcare mandate. "What we did was right for our state, but wrong for the nation."

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