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They will always try, I believe, and unfortunately they are aided by people who push their candidates. There are many of those here. In 2008, in my mind the two best candidates from an ideological perspective were Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson. Hunter had little to no name recognition and was not the best debater. Fred Thompson would’ve been great, I think, but the fact of the matter is the guy just didn’t want the job. He had to be pushed into it. We were really left with Giuliani, Huckabee, Romney, and McCain. All were flawed candidates, but we ended up with the absolute worst of the bunch.

It will probably happen again in 2012. I wish it weren’t true. The country-club types will probably want to nominate the “his turn” guy, which I think is Romney. There are a bunch of candidates that are much better, of course, but people here who dislike Jindal (abb in particular has been complaining about him for years) will try their best to torpedo him before hand. Pence, Allen, and whoever else might be running will inevitably have dozens of detractors here who will ultimately help Romney.

people here who dislike Jindal (abb in particular has been complaining about him for years)

In abb's defense, I would rather hear from those who know these candidates from experience, rather than those who only read/write about them from a distance and jump on their bandwagon.

In 2008, many lauded Huckabee as a great savior of the conservatives. I lived in Arkansas and knew of some of his actions as governor. Those actions his bots didn't want to believe or hear about.

The same with Thompson and those who grabbed onto him as some great savior of conservatism, but didn't want to hear about or made excuses for his actions during his short Senate tenure.

The same is true with the Gingrich bots who have no idea, and don't really want to know, how/why Gingrich lost his House speakership and virtually walked away from his House seat.

...and Fred Thompson

As a Tennessean I cannot adequately express the depths of the disappointment I have with Fred Thompson. He's not an ideal candidate, but he would have been much better than McCain.

OTOH, If there is a bright side to Obamalamadingdong it is that his policies and tactics have awakened a lot of people that would otherwise still be asleep if Hunter, McCain or Thompson had been elected. A lot of people who are now aware of the dire straights the country is in would still be asleep if the Republicans had won the Whitehouse in '08. I just hope everybody stays riled up for another 5-6 election cycles so we can complete the necessary purge.....