[Charles Henrickson]

I don't think Perry or Gingrich or Santorum or Bachmann--I don't think any of them were the answer. This has nothing to do with Rove. None of them could win the nomination, and even if they did, all of them would have been spanked worse than Romney was.

And none of the aforementioned will be the nominee in 2016. (You can throw Palin in there, too.) At this point, my guess would be McDonnell, Kasich, or Rubio--maybe Walker or Jindal, possibly Ryan.

[JediJones]

I don't think Perry or Gingrich or Santorum or Bachmann--I don't think any of them were the answer. This has nothing to do with Rove. None of them could win the nomination, and even if they did, all of them would have been spanked worse than Romney was.

Wrong. Gingrich would have won. He's a master communicator, a tough fighter, a great political strategist and he appeals to the working-class whites who didn't show up. He also had talked up Susana Martinez and Marco Rubio as V.P.s, which would've probably helped. Santorum would've had a chance, if he could avoid an Akin/Mourdock like gaffe, which was probably not likely.