Romney still in the political hunt

Romney endorsed McCain a week after dropping out of the race. Last month, they jointly attended fundraisers in Utah and Colorado, two Mountain West states the GOP is counting on this fall.

Romney's support for McCain has been most evident in fundraising. One of his national finance co-chairs, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, is now serving the same role for McCain. Another former Romney finance co-chair, L.E. Simmons, is arranging a major fundraiser for McCain in Houston on May 10.

Yet a day earlier, Romney will take advantage of the McCain event to meet with former backers in Houston. The Beach Boys will provide musical entertainment.

Eric Tanenblatt, Romney's Georgia state and national finance co-chairman, said some attendees at a recent fundraiser he helped arrange for McCain approached him and raised the prospect of the two former rivals uniting on a ticket.

"They'd love to see that," Tanenblatt said. "In the South, Republicans are conservatives, and he's a conservative that a lot of people rallied around."

Not all conservatives.

The specter of Romney joining a McCain ticket prompted some to launch an anti-Romney petition at http://www.nomittvp.com/, as well as to place full-page ads in newspapers where McCain is campaigning. The ads question Romney's commitment to conservative ideals and have been supported by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, who had endorsed Romney.

"If Governor Romney is on your ticket, many social conservative voters will consider their values repudiated by the Republican Party and will either stay away from the polls this November or only vote down ticket," the ad tells McCain.

Instead, they talk about former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses before his campaign faded, or a pair of governors: Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah or Mark Sanford of South Carolina. Other potential running mates include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rob Portman, a former Ohio congressman who headed the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Romney and his aides brush off the conservative criticism. Instead, they press on, which included a guest slot for Romney providing news and comment on Paul Harvey's nationally syndicated radio show.

Picking the president: The candidates Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed. John McCain                Barack Obama

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