Why Romney's Growing Endorsement List Matters

Let's talk endorsements, media, and all that other stuff.
Warning- my pro-Romney bias will likely show up.

Last week Jeb Bush, a not so small name at Republican parties endorsed Mitt Romney. Yesterday, Marco Rubio, another popular name endorsed Mitt Romney. And George Bush the Elder will endorse Romney today.
And yet the Washington Post runs an article about how hard it is to find a Romney "superfan."Now, I wouldn't label myself as a "Superfan," or "Romniac," but I do know a few people who fit that description well. In fact, a quick glance at my sidebar (over there to the left) will link you to several of them. And yet, the Washington Post made it sound like drudgery to find just two or three. I find it amusing that the ones they found I had never even heard of, which means there's even more Romney devotees than originally thought. (Maybe the WaPo google machine is broken?)
 In fact, just for fun, I decided to do a very quick search on Romney fan blogs.

That would be over seven million responses in .2 seconds. (Told you it was a quick search.) To get this result, I obviously put in "mitt romney" into google, then clicked "more," and then "blogs," and then "homepage" (not posts- found in left toolbar, so as to remove all newspaper article posts). Seven million amateur blogs.



But I digress. Back to the endorsements.
Romney has pocketed some very big names along the campaign trail- Gov. Nikki Haley, Gov. Pawlenty, Gov. Barbour, Gov. Sununu, The Donald, etc., etc. Senator Santorum has even picked up a few as well- Governor of Alabama, several Christian music singers, the reality show family the Duggars, and let's not forget Megadeth. (How can we forget Megadeth?) Depending on the type of person you are, all the governors and senators in the world may not carry the same weight as Christian pop stars. I admit I've long been a fan of Gov Haley Barbour (although my loyalty is shaken a bit by the recent pardons), but I don't have the first clue who Krista Branch is. But I have no doubt that road goes both ways, and there are probably people who think Gov Barbour is a woman, and that Krista Branch walks on water.
Endorsements are not everything.
Or are they?
Allow me a minute to look into my crystal ball at the possibilities of a brokered convention. If we reach a brokered convention, all of those GOP heavyweights in Romney's corner are going to pack a serious punch. Those are the folks with power on the convention floor- the rock stars of the night. They are the ones who can rally the troops and raise the banner for their candidate. The Duggars might be out in the hallway posing for pictures and signing DVDs, but they won't be garnering votes for their man.
If you think endorsements are nice, but they don't really mean anything, think again. It this all goes to a brokered convention, all those endorsements will mean everything.


*I could not find a list of all the endorsements for either candidate. I could find plenty of press releases, but not a simple list. If anyone knows of one, could you leave me the link? I'm contemplating making my own list, but that would be a LOT of work!