Romney out. Congratulations Freepers on ensuring there was no conservative in the race. (Vanity)

[mbraynard]

You rallied behind someone who never had their heart in the race and was never a leader in their life (Thompson) or never had a chance in hell (Hunter). What is needed more than anything to win the WH is a drive to do the spade work necessary to get there. So by denying Romney victory in IA and NH and SC, and splitting the field, you now have probably the worst enemy of all - someone the Wonderful Mr. Jim Robinson never saw fit to put a 'truth file' on.

So, nice work.

[Rick.Donaldson]

You said a mouthful, and you’re correct.

The Republic won’t fall though, because of Conservatism. It will fall for a lack thereof.

America is NOT going to let Islam waltz in here and import Sharia law.

The United States, is STILL the United States, regardless of who gets that office.

We had a Clinton in office already, and America wasn’t destroyed - we faltered, but did not fall. Clinton gave away Missile secrets to the Chinese and they are building their power base again.

Another Clinton in office can further weaken this country, but we won’t fall as long as Conservatives, and even Conservative Democrats still exist. We have our guns, our freedoms and we have our Constitution - and we will use it if necessary in the way it was meant to be.

The fall of Conservatism in our party is due to Democrats changing parties. I’ve been looking into and there are lots of articles where Democrats changed parties before the primaries to vote. LOTS. Thousands.

[Veto!]

I will not be listening to Rush for a very long time. He could have helped Romney so much. No courage Rush. Your bully pulpit has too many conditions.

Interesting. I gave up on Rush a couple of years ago, tired of the negativity.

IMO, religious intolerance and small-minded bigotry brought down the only candidate in either party with the talent, knowledge, and ability to get our sinking economy back on track. The dollar is drooping, jobs are leaving, companies are closing, the market is tanking and we've disqualified a true financial genius because he's a Morman. Idiocy.

[kevkrom]

Romney out. Congratulations Freepers on ensuring there was no conservative in the race.

With Romney in, there still wasn't a conservative in the race. What's changed?

[Zack Attack]

Who is a real conservative anymore? I really don’t know at this point.

A couple years ago I thought George Allen. Now, he will show up with McCain to CPAC according to reports.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Your headline assumes that “The New Conservative Romney,
Version 9.7”, is the real Romney.

Many of us think none of the previous versions were real
either. Maybe the “New Mitt” is the final version, but some
of us - and apparently quite a few - had doubts. In the end,
a majority of the R party went with someone who scored an
83 Conservative rating over a guy who had conservative talk.

Personally, I’m sMITTen with the outcome.

Let him stay conservative and let’s see how his future in
politics shapes up. Let’s see if this version is the final
one.

[kenmcg]

What a moronic statement. When free speech is gone we’re dead!!

[BillyBoy]

But... but... all the Huckabee bashers on FR INSISTED that Huckabee was a "media creation" and that the MSM was "carrying his water", and "pushing hard for Huck" -- and that was the ONLY reason he got any votes in the primaries!

I remember here in Illinois, Obama won the Iowa Dem caucus and it was a huge full-page, front-page story. On the same day, Huckabee won the Iowa GOP caucus with a much more lopsided upset (having been outspent by Romney 20-to-1 and the MSM made it a small one-paragraph story on page 5)

Could be it be that the anti-Hucksters were -- gasp -- LYING? Nah, perish the thought!

[SoldierDad]

I understand what you are saying here, but bona fides are not just your record of public service, but also you’re ability to generate support and obtain national recognition to the level needed to earn the nomination. Not one of the true conservative candidates possessed these attributes this year. This is why we are faced with such horrific choices in November. And, please, don’t start with the “it’s the voters fault” scenereo. It is up to the candidates themselves to bring everything they have to the party, not the voters.

[wagglebee]

Actually, it’s FRiberals like YOU who spent the last year pushing RINOs like Rooty and Romney. Now you’re stuck with a RINO you don’t like.

Maybe next time you will support a conservative from the start.

[pissant]

Hunter saw the field last year - Rudy McRomney- all poison pills to large swaths of conservatives. He mistakenly assumed that he would get support from talk radio, the conservative media and forums like FR. He got only one of three. And so it goes.

[scfirewall]

I’m writing in Jim Robinson’s name come November.

[x]

You're right that Thompson's campaign was a distraction. Fred's heart wasn't in it either.

But Fred won support because voters didn't believe Mitt was a real conservative. They were right to be skeptical.

It might have been worthwhile simply to take the plunge and support Mitt as the least of evils, but conservatives had to see what would happen and whether Fred might catch on before they could take that step.

[Mr. Ion]

Duncan Hunter is a conservative in all respects. There is no fault for those who supported him.

[Mr. Ion]

To paraphrase Churchill: “We may have killed the wrong b*st*rd”

Good quote. Giuliani needed to go, but big deal media pundits needed to vociferously oppose McCain much sooner than actually happened.

[OCCASparky]

Still IBTZ. However, as powerful a voice as FR is, we don’t control the media who blackballed both Thompson and Hunter, so don’t go blaming us.

[FourtySeven]

The truth of the matter is, there wasn’t one candidate who united the party. Thompson, Guilliani, Romney, none of them united the party for various reasons. Conservatism isn’t dead, there just wasn’t a strong standard-bearer. The Freerepublic or Rush Limbaugh aren’t to blame.

I don't blame Rush (too much, I personally think he shouldve stuck his neck out for either Hunter or Thompson, even though he has this policy of not endorsing anyone in the primaries. This race was too important to abide by that personal rule, IMO).

But I do blame people on FR, insomuch as they represent the equivalent foolishness that clearly played out in the real world. Most who supported Romney did so simply because he looked good in ads and had a slick presentation, and also because they (foolishly) believed he really DID change on the host of issues that we all know so well no need to repeat again.

FReepers should've known better than to trust a flip flopper just because he has an R next to his name. And since so many on FR failed this simple test, the message of who to support didn't get out to the general public, as so many were too interested in hijacking Hunter/Thompson threads than seriously looking at their candidate.

Guilliani failed because he was too liberal even for the moderates of the party.

Romney failed because, quite frankly, in the GENERAL view, he wasn't "experienced" enough for the elderly, but moderate voter, and not conservative enough (for reasons described above) for the conservative voter. He also failed because McCain and Huckabee double teamed him, kinda like how Romney himself divided the party against itself with his (unfounded) criticisms of Thompson, all the while being a flip flopper himself.

Thompson "failed" only because, quite frankly, it's clear this nation is NOT a nation of thinkers, intellectuals, those who are willing to listen to and analyze ideas. He "failed" because he wasn't flashy enough. And probably because some men were jealous of him vis a vis his 2nd wife. Hunter "failed" for similar reasons.

In other words, the other candidates failed because of VALID reasons, reasons that at least had some thought behind them, but the REAL conservatives failed because, their positions required more thought than a soundbyte second, AND because they had to contend with the FAUX conservative of Romney. Fighting to make people want to understand their positions, AND fighting against a pretty boy was too much.

It's just that simple. This is why I have little sympathy for Romney fans right now. Because now they realize what it's like to be on the other side of the fence, with regards to "division among the party geared toward TAKING YOUR CANDIDATE DOWN".

McCain and Huckabee played Romney like a violin, with his own music sheet of "divide and conquer". Doesn't feel too good when YOUR candidate is "divided out of the race", DOES it Romney supporters? That's why I said "Now you know what it's like on our side of the fence". Maybe next election we'll focus on ISSUES, and chuck out flip floppers EARLY ON, BEFORE they have a chance to divide us, instead of clinging onto them just because they look good on TEEVEE.

[OCCASparky]

Bravo sir—a gold star for you.

[Squidpup]

Dude - check the fine print - January 21-27. Got a graph from a different time period?

[ellery]

So in other words, you’re berating people for making their own judgements about whom the best candidate is/was, instead of just asking you and voting the way you tell/told us.

Wow. /shaking head

[BillyBoy]

>> And another thing...When did Rommney become a conservative? <<

Around the time he first set foot in Iowa and needed to be a "Reaganite" to attract GOP voters.