Former US president George H.W. Bush said Mitt Romney is the Republican Party's "best choice" to challenge President Barack Obama in the 2012 election in an informal endorsement published Thursday.
"I think Romney is the best choice for us," the elder Bush told the Houston Chronicle, citing Romney's "stability, experience, principles."
"He's a fine person," he said. "I just think he's mature and reasonable -- not a bomb-thrower."
The elder Bush's nod to his old friend comes just days before the party's first event to nominate its presidential candidate for the November elections: the crucial Iowa caucuses on January 3.
He also expressed misgivings about the candidacies of fellow Texan Governor Rick Perry and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who was a rising power in Congress when Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993.
"I like Perry, but he doesn't seem to be going anywhere; he's not surging forward," Bush said.
Of Gingrich, Bush said: "I'm not his biggest advocate."
He recalled how Gingrich slipped away moments before he was set to stand with Bush and leaders of both parties in support of a deal reached in 1990 to raise taxes so he could start lobbying against it.
Romney's campaign -- which has made much of more formal endorsements -- did not immediately respond to the story published on the paper's website Thursday.
Bush is considered a moderate Republican and the endorsement is not likely to help the former Massachusetts governor much with the party's conservative base.
Copyright 2011 AFP American Edition
