“Newt or Santorum or Perry were attacked so viciously ...”
Yup. And this wouldnt have happened at 10X the level in the general election?
It’s called “vetting”.
Most of the worst nasty things said were by liberal mouthpieces in the media, and they would have ramped it up even more.
I’m going to agree that this is what would happen in the general election, but it’s not what should happen in the primary.
The primary election is the vehicle for a PRIVATE organization, the republican party, to determine their BEST candidate to put in the general election.
In fact, I don’t believe in primaries at all. The caucus idea, restricted to party members, is the loosest that a party should permit the selection of their candidate to become.
I actually favor the original constitutional process for selecting a president.
So, no. I don’t think it is the responsibility of the candidates and the party to lie about other candidates. I consider it a disqualifier.
Just remember that the republican party is a PRIVATE organization that is no place mentioned in the US Constitution, nor is ANY party, and you will see the absurdity of boards of election controlling anything about a party nomination system.