Sen. Kelly Ayotte backs Mitt Romney in N.H.

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is cheered on by supporters and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., left, outside City Hall in Nashua, N.H., Nov. 20, 2011. Ayotte endorsed Romney earlier. / AP Photo/Winslow Townson

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is cheered on by supporters and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., left, outside City Hall in Nashua, N.H., Nov. 20, 2011. Ayotte endorsed Romney earlier.

/ AP Photo/Winslow Townson

Just a hop, skip, and a jump from her Nashua, N.H., office, Sen. Kelly Ayotte endorsed Mitt Romney Sunday on the steps of City Hall -- a prominent Granite State endorsement for the former Massachusetts governor.

The afternoon was somewhat uncharacteristic of Romney's campaigning style of late on two levels -- he rarely has public events scheduled on Sundays, nor has he had many meet-and-greet style diner visits with voters.

But the former Massachusetts governor was in fine form Sunday, and seemed completely at ease in the state his lead constantly seems to be growing in. He kissed Ayotte on the cheek when she rose to the podium to give her endorsement and munched on bacon happily while distributing BLTs at the diner.

At one point, a man in the crowd asked Romney what his favorite Guns N' Roses song was. "Um, I don't think I can give you a good one," said Romney. "All I can give you is some good food out here today. But today, this here is me just raw and unleashed." The joke was not lost on anyone who had caught the opening skit of Saturday Night Live last night, which mocked Romney's goody-two-shoes reputation with vignettes of him trying to be "raw and unleashed." One of his campaign trail rivals, Gov. Jon Huntsman, appeared on the program in person Saturday.

Ayotte's endorsement was highly sought after by many of the Republican candidates for president. She won office in 2010 with help from some prominent GOP figures -- including John McCain, Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Romney himself. Earlier this month, Ayotte was one of 11 GOP senators who joined Herman Cain for a private dinner at a downtown Washington steakhouse. Ayotte joins a laundry list of notable backers for Romney in the Granite State, among them former Govs. John H. Sununu and Judd Gregg, often in tow at Romney events in the state. The campaign had been working for some time to secure Ayotte's endorsement.

With her husband by her side, Ayotte said "Joe and I are here today to endorse Governor Romney for president because we know that with his experience he will make sure that we get our fiscal house in order in Washington, that we stop crushing all of us and our children with mountains of debt, and that we get Americans back to work."

Speaking right after her, Romney thanked Ayotte and also seized on the opportunity to attack President Obama with regard to the super committee currently at a stalemate in Washington. When Democrats were asked on the Sunday morning shows what role the president has had in helping them come to some sort of resolution, Romney said, "He hasn't had one" and this was an example of "failed leadership."

[scottedowner]

Come on People the Man is a CARN Artist he worked for Banking he is part of the Problem ! he still owes New Hampshire mney from when in office in MA. he lied about . Boston Globe investigation uncovered that former Gov. Mitt Romney's administration destroyed emails, purchased hard drives, and otherwise obliterated all digital records of his time as governor of Massachusetts. This happened as Romney was leaving the state to campaign COME on THE MAN is A CARN ! RON PAUL 2012

[nygal28]

A repub backs a repub. Ho-hum...............

[jacktar7]

Who would the "establishment" candidate be but someone like Gingrich who used his former position as leader of the House of Representatives to get a $1.6 million dollar consulting "job" with Freddie Mac?

I think that many people are starting to agree with Hannity that Romney is a conservative at heart. This "flip-flopper" thing is way overdone. For example, Reagan used to be a democrat and a union leader. He became a Republican. As the Republican governor of California he signed an abortion law, and subsequently 2 million abortions were performed. Later, he changed his mind about abortion, and strongly opposed it. Some called him a flip-flopper, but that "flip-flopper" charge turned out to be totally irrelevant because he became a superior president. . . . What voters want in a politician above all is someone who keep his promises. When Romney was elected Governor of Massachusetts, he made a list of all the promises he had made during the campaign. When each one was fulfilled, he checked it off the list. I admire that. . . . Democrat and Republican enemies of Romney want you to believe that changing one's mind is the be-all of integrity. But there are hundreds of actions and qualities that reflect integrity, e.g., following the ten commandments, working hard without complaint, following the golden rule, performing charity work, sacrificing for one's family, temperance, humility, forbearance, forgiveness, courage, benevolence, keeping one's word, and so on and on, and Romney seems to be above average in many of them.

[edpipkin]

For some reason, I think that CBS wants Romney to be the Republican nominee rather that Gingrich, ..... Is this because they fear Gingrich but not Romney... who no one in particular supports. A little "reverse engineering" I think..... Get the wrong politician to run against the medias choice...... obama chicago style....
Hey you guys in the mainstream media..... what about our country... when we are socialist you won't even exist.... wakeup

[edpipkin]

For some reason, I think that CBS wants Romney to be the Republican nominee rather that Gingrich, ..... Is this because they fear Gingrich but not Romney... who no one in particular supports. A little "reverse engineering" I think..... Get the wrong politician to run against the medias choice...... obama chicago style....
Hey you guys in the mainstream media..... what about our country... when we are socialist you won't even exist.... wakeup

[brxndxn]

Neat.. an establishment politician endorses the Establishment Candidate. And the Establishment media reports about it like everything is peachy.

Except there's something wrong here.. Romney is being exposed as an Establishment shill and the American people are rejecting him. If this was real reporting, it would show a picture of the amount of people around Romney. Was it 50? 500? 5000?

Do some real reporting please, Sarah.

[zenduane]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this is news. Up here in NH, Ayotte's negative's are running high in the general populace as she continues to cozy to the rich and powerful. They are almost as bad as Congressman Frank Guinta's and both of them have held there offices for less than 12 months. She contributed to the fight that brought down America's credit rating and voted against Obama's jobs bill. That little maneuver cost our State approximately 3400 jobs that we desperately need. Perhaps this is important to the ultra right wing, but for us it is a mandate to look even more carefully at finding someone other than Romney.