Both Sen. John Thune and former Massachusetts Governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney looked campaign-ready under the television lights at a Friday press conference in Sioux Falls.
Both, though, insisted the campaign at hand is Thune's re-election bid this year and not the prelude to a possible presidential run for either of them in 2012.
Looking that far ahead not only is counting chickens before they hatch, Romney said, "but counting them before the rooster and the hen meet."
"I'm running for the Senate," Thune said.
Romney has been busy, however. Having been a guest of honor at the Winter Olympics and having addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in the past week, Romney stepped off the national stage to appear at a fundraiser for Thune, who as yet has no opponent in his Senate race.
Justin Brasell, Thune's campaign manager, said the event's target was $50,000, and Thune himself made a point of leaving nothing to chance.
"I expect we will have an opponent before too long," he said.
Thune and Romney drove home a theme of restoring conservative principles of limited spending and using the private sector to create jobs, and Romney echoed Thune's claim that the Troubled Asset Relief Program should not be treated as a revolving loan fund or a slush fund for lawmakers' pet projects.
An effort by Thune to require TARP money repaid to the government be used to reduce the federal deficit was defeated in January.
At CPAC, Romney saw firsthand the ideological debate sparked by Tea Party activists that Republican candidates this year must somehow get their arms around.
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He also predicted the party will be able to accommodate all its factions by the November election.
"We recognize that splintering means losing. There is too much at stake not to come together," Romney said.
Thune added that ultimately voters will be more influenced by competent leaders than ideology.
"People want leaders who solve problems," he said, leaders whose solutions "reflect conservative principles."
If he is returned to the Senate, Thune said he will be part of a body of lawmakers notably changed by the victory of Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., in a special election in January. Other Republican successes this year could reduce the Democratic majority even further, but Brown's election itself gives Republicans 41 seats. That makes it impossible for Democrats to break a filibuster and gives Republicans leverage.
"That's enormously important in terms of the governance of the country," Thune said.
Politically, he added, Brown's surprising triumph might be "a godsend" and "a wakeup call" for Democrats. It remains to be seen, though, whether a lesson is learned or Democrats continue to pursue "a big government agenda," Thune said.
