Emanuel says South Carolina primary doesn’t matter, Romney will be nominee

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Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns in Irmo, S.C., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Updated: January 20, 2012 12:10PM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday that Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary doesn’t matter: Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for president.

“When Bill Clinton basically had the nomination wrapped up, he lost Connecticut — he lost it big,” Emanuel said, waving off the issue of whether Romney could lose South Carolina Saturday.

“So I don’t even read any more in the newspaper or follow the ups and downs, cause Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee. Basically there’s a buyer’s remorse process. The problem for Romney is that happened before he was even nominated.”

Emanuel was appearing on a panel with pundits George Stephanopoulos, David Brooks, Rachel Maddow, and Alex Castellanos to inaugurate former White House advisor David Axelrod’s new Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Axelrod said he expects Romney to be the nominee but does not consider it a foregone conclusion the way Emanuel does.

Emanuel congratulated Axelrod on the institute, saying, “I am so proud you were able to get this done because I know how important this was to you, and you are going to enrich a lot of other kids’ lives in this process, letting them learn how to do negative ads.”