Conservatives, Romney, and Electability

"In short, the electoral experience of the last 50 years does nothing to undermine the common-sense notion that most political battles are won by seizing and holding the ideological center. In the last two presidential elections, more than 44% of voters described themselves as "moderate," and no conservative candidate could possibly prevail without coming close to winning half of them (as George W. Bush did in his re-election).

The notion that ideologically pure conservative candidates can win by disregarding centrists and magically producing previously undiscovered legions of true-believer voters remains a fantasy. It is not a strategy. At the moment, it is easy to imagine Mitt Romney appealing to many citizens who would never consider Rick Perry or Herman Cain. It is much harder (if not impossible) to describe the sort of voter—Republican, Democrat or independent—who would refuse to support Mr. Romney (over Barack Obama!) but would somehow eagerly back Messrs. Perry, Cain or Gingrich, let alone Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum or Ron Paul.

Conservatives, as well as their moderate and progressive neighbors, may have plenty of reasons to oppose Mitt Romney in favor of some rival candidate. Electability can't reasonably count as one of them."

Well, then give me someone I can vote for.

Romney isn’t it.

I am NOT a Republican, I am a conservative. I have no fondness for those who put party over principle. They don’t get my vote “just because”.

"I’ll continue to hang around though, because after either Mitt or Newt gets the nod (I see that as inevitable) I’ll remain hopeful that some members will work for the good of the ‘R’ candidate as well as the good of the other ‘R’s down ballot (conservative and moderately conservative) as if our lives depended on it."

Listen, You are beginning to annoy the piss out of me.

You may protest all you like but it still sounds to me like you are a mitbott .

And quit telling me that refusing to vote for Romney is "throwing away my vote because I didn't get what I wanted".

You either do not get it or you will not get it that supporting Romney under ANY circumstance is bad for the country. Furthermore, I assure you that there will be no support for Romney here on FR, even if he gets the Republican nomination. The guy that owns the place has already made that clear.

I am very amused by this. You think that because I am digging deep and asking controversial questions that concern me, you automatically think I am a Mitt supporter? That is laughable and makes you sound a bit paranoid. Let’s see, I’ve been registered on FR for about ten years and I’ve been covering up my Mitt-love all this time so I can take up for the biggest RINO of the bunch. Of course, you’ve figured out my secret!!!

Are you serious?

So basically by copying in Jim R on your response are you trying to ‘tell on me’ for asking questions? You did read my post that said Cain and Santorum are my favorite candidates, correct? Are we not allowed to discuss hypothetical scenarios here on FR with polls clearly showing Mitt and Newt leading, or are we all supposed to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that’s not happening? I’m interested in everyone’s opinion on what they will do and freely offer mine. I said I respected your position and was trying to better understand it. I’m simply asking around to gauge what everyone is thinking and trying to understand their positions as well...or are we not allowed to be curious and do that either?

Really, if I am pissing you off then you need to get a thicker skin, Nik. Responding to you in return is making me tired! Good night, and God Bless :-)

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