Iowa's Steve King may not endorse candidate

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King suggested Sunday he may not endorse a Republican candidate for president, telling CBS' Bob Schieffer he must first "come to a conviction."

King, in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," said he hopes to "get there," but suggested that, as the field stands, no candidate had yet appealed to his "conviction."

"This week you told The Washington Post, and I think these are your words, 'no full spectrum conservative has emerged in the field,'" prompted Schieffer. "Does that mean you may not endorse?"

"Well, it doesn't mean they're not out there," King responded. "It's the emergence definition is the question.

"And I'll just be, you know, straight honest with you on what's going on inside of me, and that is, I have to come to a conviction. Just like these candidates come to a conviction to run for president, I need to come to a conviction to get fully behind a single candidate.

"And so that's what's holding me back," he added. "I hope to get there."

King counted among his hesitations questions about which candidate could succeed at selling the message of what need to be done to deal with America's debt.

"Can one of these candidates actually sell the tough medicine that we're going to have to take to get this country fixed before we go off the cliff?" he asked. "And then, will they be able to sell that to the American people so that that mandate can actually get this done? I hope that we can get to that point before this is over, Bob."

When prompted, King said he could see himself endorsing Rep. Michele Bachmann, with whom he said, "I fit right down the same issue after issue" - but he stopped short of actually doing so.

"I haven't come to the conviction," he said. "And so that's what holds me back, Bob."

King also reflected on the possible shortcomings of putative frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney - including what he described as the "intangible" factor that may be holding Romney back in the polls.

"He's a better candidate this time than he was four years ago," King said. "But sometimes you can measure all the pieces, where they are on issues and how they are on debate. And the list of those things goes on. But sometimes it's just an intangible. And I don't know that Iowans have warmed up to him in the fashion that one would think given his positions on the issues."

He noted that Gingrich had proven "very, very strong" in the Republican presidential debates, but wondered at the notoriously feisty candidate's ability to be disciplined.

"You wonder what kind of discipline he might have," King said, referencing controversial positions Gingrich has recently taken on Palestine and immigration. "He is clearly, hands down, the one who has got the most breadth, the most depth, and the most understanding of policy, and the most solutions to put forward.

"But it's risky to go forward in the fashion that he has. And when you're blazing a trail when you're on top of the polls, that tends to be a high liability."