“It’s really small,” one aide said, “but it will be okay.” 
 
 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) went out first to introduce Romney, “the next president of the United States!” Romney could hear applause, and when his intro music, Kid Rock’s “Born Free,” blared from the speakers, he and Sen. Ronald H. Johnson (R-Wis.) walked out from behind the black curtain. “It was April Fools’ Day, and it was completely implausible. “It’s the way the Internet works. “I was hoping it would go viral, and I guess it has.” 
 
 More on April Fools’ Day: 
 
 8-bit Google Maps: Google’s most fun April Fools’ Day prank ever? And on this morning, as he recounted to a crowd here, “they turned me into the April fool!” Luckily, the scene was caught on video.
– One of yesterday's April Fools' Day pranks apparently fooled a few too many people: A Forbes contributor posted a blog on Forbes.com claiming that Mitt Romney had dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Rick Santorum. Despite the fact that editors took it down after just half an hour, the news quickly went viral on Twitter and was, for a short time, the No. 1 story on Google News. The uproar is "kind of baffling," contributor Len Burman tells the Washington Post. "It was April Fools’ Day, and it was completely implausible. Nobody in the party would have said those things." Among Burman's "implausible" quotes from the original blog: Romney claiming he has "no chance" to win the general election and saying that Republicans should "get our butts kicked now and move on." The entire post is available on Burman's personal blog. Meanwhile, Romney also found himself the butt of an April Fools' Day prank dreamed up by his aides, the Post notes. Paul Ryan introduced Romney, set to give a stump speech at a Milwaukee pancake breakfast yesterday, but when the candidate emerged he was faced with an empty room. "I thought, 'Oh, boy, this is gonna look really bad on the evening news, let me tell you,'" says Romney, who had forgotten the date. After hearing cries of "April fools" he laughed it off and was taken to the real room, where several hundred supporters were gathered. The whole thing was caught on video, of course.