National Review nod gives Romney a boost
Endorsement calls him 'full-spectrum conservative'
Mitt Romney picked up the endorsement yesterday of National Review, the venerable magazine of conservative politics, which will feature a Rockwellian portrait of Romney on the cover of its new edition that hits newsstands Friday.
The support is a welcome boost for Romney, who has been trying to fend off a surge by Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who has overtaken him in Iowa and national polls for the Republican presidential nomination.
William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review in 1955, and it has grown into one of the more influential conservative journals. Admirers of the publication, which has 150,000 subscribers, include President Bush, Henry Kissinger, and George F. Will.
"Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate," the Review's editors wrote in their endorsement, published online yesterday. "In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest."
Hours before the endorsement, Huckabee trotted out his own endorsement in Iowa - from Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, the controversial group that has patrolled the Mexican and Canadian borders. Gilchrist praised Huckabee as the candidate most likely to stop "this illegal immigrant invasion problem." Huckabee also said he was flattered that Romney yesterday launched the first negative television ad in Iowa, assailing him for supporting in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants and taxpayer-financed scholarships for illegal immigrants.
"I think the people of Iowa, who have been through this so many times, will vote for somebody who has a plan for the future of America, not just somebody who is looking around and saying, like the tattletale in third grade, 'Let me tell you what this guy is doing,' " Huckabee told reporters in Iowa.
Romney's director of strategy, Alexander P. Gage, said the campaign was not concerned about Huckabee's rise in Iowa, where a Rasmussen Reports poll released yesterday showed him leading Romney by 16 percentage points.
Gage attributed much of Huckabee's move to demographics, saying 45 percent of Iowa caucusgoers are evangelical Christians, which he called a "natural constituency" for the former Baptist preacher.
"Iowa was a sweet spot for him," Gage said in a telephone interview.
Gage said Huckabee will face a tougher climb in New Hampshire, where about 17 percent of Republican primary voters are evangelical Christians and where Romney still leads in the polls.
The National Review also surveyed the race, concluding Romney's main rivals all have more serious flaws than he does. Rudy Giuliani isn't conservative enough on social issues, Huckabee isn't on economic ones, and John McCain has strayed on campaign finance reform, taxes, and immigration, the editors say. Fred Thompson is as conservative as Romney, but lacks executive experience and has waged an uninspiring campaign.
The magazine, however, has not picked a winner in recent nomination fights.
The endorsement caught the interest of the Democratic National Committee, which pointed out that Romney donated $5,000 to help sponsor an October 2006 dinner honoring the National Review Online.
In a press kit, Romney praises the website "as the place to go on the web for insightful, intellectual, and honest debate."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 