Jim was correct. But it was the R party primaries that selected Gov. Romney (and most people thought his choice of Sen. Ryan was a pretty good one, too). Some of the other R candidates got torpedoed almost overnight, rather than running the course and seeing which one was the most popular. So, that is an issue — how do we prevent such things from happening in future so that we are really permitted a choice of all R candidates? Second issue for the future: is Ronald Reagan’s “11th commandment” worth reviewing and, perhaps, resurrecting — at least in some measure or form, so that the R candidates do not form a circular firing squad and, basically, torpedo the eventual nominee from within the R party itself? (And how could any such policy be enforced if, say, one or two primary candidates were to violate it next time? If it can’t be enforced then maybe it is not worth a lot of time to debate?
Just asking. I regret I do not have answers...but I bet some people here DO....so have at it please....
Meanwhile, alas, let’s all see if we can somehow help USA survive the next 4 years .....
Santorum did quite well head to head against Romney until he dropped out. During contested primaries it was quite clear that the majority of Republican primary voters did not want Romney as the nominee. However, Romney managed to help slime much better conservatives than he right out of the race.
Others have posted it, and I will repeat it: people were warned how horrible a candidate Mitt Romney would be and were warned more than once.
And I will also answer the question before it's asked: the beauty of Ronald Reagan was that he could bypass a media that was as unfriendly to him as it has ever been to any Republican to take a message directly to the American people. Did we have a candidate who could do that who was not named Romney? We will never know, because Romney's GOP-E helped take them all out of the race.