Posted on 04/12/2012 6:12:01 PM PDT by Morgana
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the fact that Rick Santorum has dropped out of the presidential race and his next leading rival, Newt Gingrich, has called Mitt Romney “far and away the most likely nominee,” the former Massachusetts governor still faces a serious problem, conservative leaders warn.
“There is a huge enthusiasm gap among grass roots conservatives that must be addressed by the Romney campaign,” former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, now president of American Values, told LifeSiteNews.com. Mitt Romney
A deficit with the party’s conservative base, especially its pro-life and pro-family base, will prove costly in November, he warned. “These people provide the passion and hard work that are key to GOP election success. It is almost impossible to win without them,” Bauer said. “Just ask John McCain.”
If he is interested in uniting the party around his candidacy, Romney must not take social conservatives for granted, Bauer said. “Every time an anonymous Romney advisor or GOP insider says these voters will ‘fall in line’ because they can’t stand Obama, it is like finger nails on a chalkboard,” Bauer told LifeSiteNews. Assuming right-leaning voters will simply show up at the polls out of fear of Obama – much less become active in his campaign – “would be a huge mistake. ”
“If Mitt Romney wants to capture some of that support that Rick Santorum gained with very little money based solely upon his message, then Mitt Romney needs to pick up that message,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told LifeSiteNews.com.
Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times stating it is “critically important that [Romney] name a trusted social conservative” as his running mate. “I would encourage him to break with tradition and pick a running mate well before the convention and have them begin campaigning as a team as early as possible,” he wrote.
Dr. Land also advised Romney to articulate “a strict constructionist, ‘original intent’ judicial philosophy.”
Bauer agreed. “Governor Romney has three opportunities” to reunite his party’s conservative wing, he told LifeSiteNews: “VP selection, party platform and acceptance speech to send the right message. He also has to signal early that he won’t be shy on fighting Obama on cultural/values issues.”
He noted Hilary Rosen’s attack that Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life provided a perfect starting point.
“To the degree that one candidate or another aligns with the core moral issues in addition to fiscal conservatism, they’re going to find support,” Perkins said. “If they don’t, they’re not going to get the unbridled enthusiastic support that Rick Santorum enjoys.”
Then Romney needs to quit his war on the unborn!
In related news, Cynthia McKinney needs to embrace a classical education.
What he needs to do is admit that he’s unworthy of the American people, drop out of the race, move to the Falkland islands, and live out his days in a shack far from phones and internet.
He imagines he "won" in Virginia because he got all the delegates ~ yet, his boys connived to keep everybody else out of the election.
We saw the spectacle of 1,000,000 voters just staying away from what had always been a really open and spectacular primary!
That will happen on a very large scale in a general election ~ values voters find nothing whatsoever in Romney to recommend him as President!
The only thing he can do to get some support out of them is to DROP OUT NOW!
Romney, Collins, Snowe, Graham, and the other RINOs don’t have a message problem, they have a values problem. I don’t care how the insiders package Romney, it’s still the same big government liberal on the inside. If we have the terrible fortune to be stuck with Mitt as the GOP nominee, then all conservatives need to vote in the House and Senate races, so that the Congress can restrain whichever liberal wins the White House.
There is NOTHING Mitt Romney can do short of dropping out that will excite most Conservatives.
He is what he is and nothing can change that.
“enthusiasm gap” is a vast understatement
Second that!
OK, so I’m supposed to believe what Romney says *during the campaign*, and forget what he has said and done in the past?
It’s nothing less than jailhouse religion. BFD. I may (not guaranteeing I will) have to vote for him to get rid of the Kenyan, but that doesn’t mean I have to swallow his BS in the process.
This is just the *barely* lessor of two evils. Romney or Obama? This country is really in the crapper if this is the best we can get for a President. I want to puke every time I think of what we are going to get.
Im just wondering, in what way is Romney currently carrying on a “war against the unborn”? I believe he is now pro life and believes Roe v Wade was improperly decided.
Cripplecreek! The Falkand Islands? You would dare submit those poor people to Mittens? How about a more far south as in Antarctica where no people are harmed?
Makes me think of the story about the scorpion and the frog crossing the stream...
Frog: "BUT YOU SAID..."
Romney: "I'M A RINOOOOOOOO...."
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Romney could wrap himself in the flag and parade down Main Street while stuffing his face with hot dogs and apple pie, and conservatives will STILL see him for the big government shill that he is.
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NO
MORE
RINOS!
There is nothing that he can say and nothing that he can do to get me to support him. I am not alone.
LLS
Why don't we just say it like it is? Mitt Blows!
Its been 3 days that I’ve been asking for one single conservative value that I won’t have to toss aside to support Romney. So far, nuthin.
Well there was one bizarre explanation that he’s wealthy so he must be conservative. Apparently George Soros is one of the most conservative men in the world.
If conservatives really want to get rid of Obama, they better figure out damned fast that they need to get rid of Romney first.
LOL
If a candidate wants conservative support, he needs to act like a conservative at least ten years before running. This is what killed Newt’s chances.
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