Mitt Romney has secured what POLITICO
tells us was "one of the most sought-after remaining GOP endorsements." That would be from South Carolina's Republican Gov. Nikki Haley.
“You put all these candidates together and you’ve got one perfect candidate, but you’re never going to have a perfect candidate,” she said. “What you do is you look at the times of the day, you look at what we need in the country, and you say let’s get on track, let’s get behind the person and let’s make this happen.”
Actually, what you do if you're Haley is go with the one who agrees to your demands.
"I have talked to him about the health care situation," she told CNN in a phone interview Friday. "He is very aware that that is not something I want in South Carolina."
Haley said Romney assured her that he will grant a waiver to South Carolina to opt out of President Barack Obama's health care law, and said he will push to repeal the law if elected.
She came away from the meeting convinced.
And of course Romney will promise her anything, even what he can't possibly deliver. First of all, no waivers can be granted until 2017, which would be the last year of Romney's first term, should he be elected. Second, in order to grant a waiver, there has to be an actual, equivalent program in place in the state that meets all of the requirements of the law. And finally:
A Congressional Research Service report requested by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) states that "A President would not appear to be able to issue an executive order halting an agency from promulgating a rule that is statutorily required by PPACA, as such an action would conflict with an explicit congressional mandate." In other words, unless Congress overturned the health care law—something Romney says he will push for—the "congressional mandate" would be when Congress passed the law in 2010.
So Haley was completely ignorant about the law and what she was asking for, and Romney was completely ignorant about the law and what he was promising. I know, you're shocked.