If you are truly a conservative, think about the best possible outcome for this election (besides punting Mitt at the convention and putting a real conservative at the top of the ticket). The ideal outcome for conservatism would be Tea Party candidates winning in landslides and Mitt squeaking through by the skin of his teeth.
There won't be a conservative at the top of the GOP ticket and there hasn't been since Reagan. Don't make Romney's election victory such a squeaker that Obama wins.
Regardless of who wins, Congress will need to control the progressive President and thwart his agenda. The next four years will be bleak regardless of who wins and without question, our country will be far more socialistic than it is now.
Don't make Romney's election victory such a squeaker that Obama wins.
I don't care one way or the other. In the short-term, Obama would be worse for all the reasons you have stated but in the long term, Romney will be worse. This nation will only be saved by a re-birth of the conservative movement. The Romney family has been fighting the conservative movement since the days of father George. IMO, son Mitt would love to do what his father couldn't: put a dagger in the heart of conservatism. Electing him as President will put him in a great position to do that. To paraphrase the wisdom of Cicero: the enemy INSIDE the gates is more dangerous than the enemy AT the gates. If Romney wins, in all likelihood, there will be no conservative Republican Presidential candidate until 2020 at the earliest. For the next 4-5 election cycles, the GOP-E will continue to point to Romney's 2012 victory as the model for success: nominate a left-leaning Republican.