So, I think our friend, fightinJAG, has the right idea. We need to bring up a conservative candidate “grass roots”, which takes a lot of money, and a lot of committed supporters that can leave their full time jobs for the long haul. It’s probably the American way in its truest form.
Just heard Nader is in the race. Hope he appeals to the people on the Rat side who are making the same arguments as many here who want to quit on the party's nominee.
Interesting that many here claim "only the GOP, not the voters who quit on the GOP, are to blame if a Rat wins." From the Rat perspective:
Nader also ran as a third-party candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida. Nader vociferously disputes the spoiler claim, saying only Democrats are to blame for losing the race to George W. Bush.
I would add this to your post:
The *first* thing that is necessary to the effort to emerge a conservative candidate is *realizing and accepting that we are responsible for doing so and able to do so.*
We have to push back against the complaint that it’s the GOP’s fault, the MSM’s fault, the system’s fault, the fill-in-the-blank’s fault.
In fact, it’s not even really a question of “fault.” It’s not about blame, it’s about responsibility. And we are responsible for USING the process to its fullest to emerge “our” candidate.