Whether you believe Ohio needs Blackwell after Taft is completely irrelevant to Blackwell's chances of winning. What matters isn't what his staff/volunteers/Freepers think, but what the majority of the electorate think. He's head and shoulders above Strickland in every single way, and he's the best thing to come along in Ohio politics in a very long time.
If you're a staunch conservative....
...but the Blackwell people have had to fight the establishment because he's too far to the right. (Which is where YOU ought to be).
Where Freepers are on Blackwell doesn't matter on election day if the votes aren't there. The fact is that Blackwell may very well be the right guy, but Ohio is NOT a state that generally supports hardline conservatives. Seriously, when was the last time we elected one? Look at our governors and senators over the last few decades: DeWine? Voinovich? Glenn? Metzenbaum? Taft? Rhodes? It's a rather pathetic collection of ideologies going from wishy-washy Republican to a far lefty like Metzenbaum. Not a single true conservative in the bunch.
The problem is that Blackwell's campaign really consisted of a grass-roots rebellion among conservative Republican, who unfortunately do not make up a majority of the electorate. The fight with Petro/Montgomery was pretty bitter, and many of the Blackwell supporters I know almost appeared gleeful at that prospect. They wanted a fight, they got it, and they won. The problem is what they won --the Republican nomination -- is very damaged goods. It's the winner, not the loser, who is supposed to be gracious, and the Blackwell campaign apparently forgot that.
With links, please......
As far as conservatives' just wanting a good fight, IMO, that's preposterous.
Any conservative who doesn't actually want Blackwell to WIN is a posseur. And any Republican who doesn't care if Strickland does, is no friend of the State of Ohio.
Which camp are you in?