[Lakeshark]

It's not too late.

Yet......

[yldstrk]

Free pass on what? He is not an adulterer or a sexual harasser or anything but what he purports to be, the secret to a successful campaign. I personally can’t abide him, he is slick and oily, and changes positions like a snake and I don’t like the Mormon thing.

He get his “positions” by poll, which is a creepy Clintonian ploy, but “free pass” ???????????

[biff]

Mitty is just another Dole or Gore. I kind of get the vibes the Mitty feels it is his turn or the nomination is his right.

On another note it is amazing to me we conservatives cannot come up with better prospects than the lineup we got now. And when did this process start? 1996? 2000? Pretty sorry bunch if you ask me.

[TBBT]

I was just asking myself... Now that Romney’s the clear front runner... Would he finally get some scrutiny? Would the other campaigns with money start aiming their guns at him?

Maybe the other campaigns will (it’s inexplicable why they haven’t already), but I doubt the media - especially our “conservative intelligentsia” - will.

[SENTINEL]

No one here has given Romhney a free Pass, especially JimRob the Inmans.

We have been screaming from the rooftops about the LDS Cult training in deception that Romney has used his enitre political life, and all the insanely crazy cult secrets that will be used by the dems during the general election likely resulting in his defeat to Obama.

JimRob has already paid a price. A breakaway LDS sect member of mormonism named was banned from FR for trying to falsely claim we inmans were threatening him in Freepmails. He set up an entire website called the Free Republic Anti-Mormon report, and has openly called for mormons to bankrupt FR for fighting against Romney.

I personally have received emails and freepmails from Romney supporters that my name was given to the FBI for lds church fires and even an lds church murder in states over a thousand miles from where I live.

FR DID NOT give Romney a free pass, to the point that even some freepers have gotten sick of our attacks on him. FR, JimRob, and the Inmans have LED the national charge against Romney from Day 1, we've done our best and I for one am unashamed.

[Thane_Banquo]

We’ve seen this drill before:

1) Media and GOP establishment annoint one RINO candidate as the winner before any voting takes place.

2) Media and GOP establishment smears all other conservative candidates while leaving the chosen RINO untouched.

3) After nomination, media and GOP establishment both turn on the chosen RINO and smear him and his VP choice, with several GOP establishment types endorsing the Democrat candidate.

4) Democrat candidate wins in a walk.

RINOs and the media are playing the same game they played in 2008. The last thing they want is for government to contract in size. They will do anything to prevent this, because it would result in less extracted wealth from insider cronyism. Remember what Trent Lott said about co-opting the Tea Party candidates?

With Romney, the media has declared a hands-off policy regarding his religious beliefs. This will not last past the convention. Issues with Mormon beliefs regarding race, polygamy, underwear, temple marriage, the Romney family’s hand in decisions made by LDS leadership, etc., will all be brought to the fore-front and the media will turn the 2012 election into a cynical referendum on Romney’s Mormonism.

[Logic n' Reason]

Assuming rom-knee is the nominee...each voter must decide, "is the "price" higher with rom-knee, or with the stain?"

Speaking for myself only, I've already answered that question.

In point of fact, one could substitute any other name in place of "rom-knee"; my answer would be the same.

[nathanbedford]

A companion article tells us that Bachmann and Santorum, while not fully excluded from Tennessee primary contest, have failed to secure named delegates. The point is that running for president is an exercise in finance and organization as well as in public relations. So far it is not surprising that the guy who could reorganize the Olympics and make hundreds of millions of dollars in financing companies should be at the head of the class.

Bachmann and Santorum try to compensate for lack of finance and organization by expressing a conservative message. Ron Paul combines a message with a dedicated if limited following providing him with a certain amount of financial wherewithal. Perry had the finances to start with, but a broken message, and no ability to deliver it in the public relations sense.

Gingrich, without money, with a blown organization, is trying to compensate with message and flair. He is finding that free media is no buckler against a blitz of negative ads.

The reason no one is attacking Romney has been explained to us as early as the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's nomination and electoral victory in 1960 by Theodore White in, The Making of the President 1960.

No one can afford to compete in paid media with Mitt Romney, that is why there have been no sustained attacks on Romney.

The lesson: don't run for president on a shoestring.

[Lady4Liberty]

Romney will not and cannot win the general election. Coddling this RINO in the primaries is not going to make the general election easier. His horribly liberal record WILL still be an issue times 100. It will also be OUR issue. Good luck to all the RINOmney supporters who want to defend abortion, socialized healthcare, the gay agenda, gun banning, and big government bailouts.

[mmanager]

One word.......ROVE

[blueunicorn6]

You know the Democrats gave up on winning the presidential race by pushing Obama when Trump started harumphing about not being a Republican. He was given his orders. The Democrats have been looking at the polls and know their man can’t win, so they have to divide the Republican party. So they’re pushing Romney and Paul. Politics used to be about finding the best person for a government job and the best person was the one who would get the most efficient and effective use out of the hard-earned taxpayer’s dollars. Now, for the Democrats, it’s win at all costs, and you have to ask yourself, and them, why this is. What’s so great about these elected jobs that the Democrats will do anything to get them?

[Sun]

I think some of us right here have been criticizing conservative presidential candidates in order to help our own candidate, assuming that we all know Romney is a liberal Republican.

But we must remember that not only FReepers read FR.