I've put some thought into this, and rather than just linking to it again let me repost and expand upon it a little with some new developments for the full benefit of this thread.
Assuming Romney becomes the (R) nominee, he will need to coalesce the base. He must do this convincingly for conservatives and Tea Party to get on board full throttle, not just halfheartedly.
How many of us were enthusiastic about Reagan in 1980 but thought the "Rockefeller Wing" was going to sabotage our chances when he selected GHWBush as his VP? How many of us were somewhat enthusiastic about Quayle, but not so much about GHWBush in 1988? How many of us were enthusiastic about Kemp, not so enthusiastic about Dole in 1996? How many of us were only cautiously supportive of GWBush in 2000, but roared when we learned he'd selected Cheney as his VP?
How does Romney get us ALL on board? Here's a suggestion:
Run not only with your VP but with your proposed cabinet as well.
Conservatives sometimes have to be reminded that a President is not king. He can't get anything done by dictate. Above all, he must be a quarterback for the team. While a quarterback may sometimes run a ball in to the end zone himself, more often than not he strategically uses the talents of his team mates to move the ball down the field and bring about the win.
Did anyone hear Palin (4/12/2012) on Hannity when asked if she'd consider being Sec'y of Energy? Did you watch her show the following night in place of Greta? Did anyone hear our own FReeper Allen West when interviewed on Hannity (4/11/2012) and asked whether he'd consider being Romney's VP? And BOTH essentially said YES!
Newt has conceded. Romney captured the TX delegates. Newt barely got 8% for all the promised Perry endorsement did him. Newt actually endorsed Romney when in Georgia. Paul is out (finally). Are any of these folks any less conservative for facing what are becoming our realities this election cycle?
A revolt at the RNC convention is NOT going to happen, now that everybody is for all practical purposes lining up, as they should, behind the likely (R) nominee, Mitt Romney.
I have proposed cabinet and administration roles for persons who were Romney's rivals at some point. These are the skill sets we conservatives wanted applied to the places of government where they'd be most effective. Instead of rivals let's make them team players:
Rick Santorum - Sec'y of HHS
Sarah Palin - Sec'y of Energy + Sec'y of Interior + EPA(merge these)
Newt Gingrich - Sec'y of Education
Michelle Bachmann - Attorney General
Herman Cain - Sec'y of Commerce, HUD, + Head of GSA (merge)
Tim Pawlenty: Sec'y of Transportation
John Bolton - Sec'y of State
John Petraeus - Sec'y of Defense
Ron Paul - Head of Federal Reserve (let the audit begin!)
Donald Trump - Head Council of Economic Advisers
Paul Ryan - Head of Office of Management and Budget
Joe Arpaio - Head of FBI, + Homeland Security (merge these)
Dick Cheney - Head of CIA
White House spokesman: Mike Huckabee
1st Supreme Court nominee: Mark Levin
2nd Supreme Court nominee: Ann Coulter
And our own FReeper, Allen West, as VP
Did anyone catch the Frank Luntz, Sean Hannity, Herman Cain program on 5/28/2012 with that audience of former Obama voters, where Hannity and Cain tested messages on the audience to which were the most persuasive? Herman Cain was asked by Sean who Romney ought to pick for VP and Cain suggested Allen West!
I was a Perry guy. Keep him as Governor of Texas. He's doing fine right where he is.
Next: Most of these folks are honed primed and stoked from the recent primary debates. They're all sharp. Nationalize the cabinet selection process as much as the Presidential and Congressional elections.
Release every one of these folks back out onto the the campaign trail with an assignment: tackle in an "in your face" way each of these departments - stage a kick-off news conference in front of each one of them. Challenge the office holders to the equivalent of Lincoln-Douglas style debates allowing each Obama appointed office member to defend their record and their (mis)-management of their public trust.
They won't debate, you say? OK, try some new Rules for Conservative Radicals. Stalk them, dog them with cameras, shame them into the arena, watch the cowards avoid the heat, watch for and exploit their mis-steps, create and run ads based on their failures in office and refusal to be made accountable.
Envision Joe Arpaio standing out in front of the TSA calling out Janet Napolitano to mix it up with him!
Envision Newt Gingrich perched out front of the Dept of Education taunting Arne Duncan to a debate on the front steps where Duncan can try vainly to defend his record as Sec'y of Education. Dog him wherever he goes.
Envision Sarah Palin calling out Stephen Chu to debate the Keystone pipeline, fracking, ANWR, and American energy self-sufficiency through Natural gas and 200+ year proven oil reserves left untapped due to Federal regs and an idiot Secretary who looks forward to $7/gallon gas! Dog him wherever he goes. Dare them to accuse you of stalking!
Multiply that 10-fold. Get in their faces and with camera's rolling. Go Breitbart on them!
While this is distracting the DNCs resources, Romney can land his own punches on Obama in the same way he's managed to blow away all his opposition in the primaries. Use Romney's well funded strike teams to confound opposition at the grass roots, do what they can to discourage and depress Democratic opposition and their voters.
Similar to what I have suggested for the proposed cabinet taking it straight to Obama's appointees Romney has already given indication that he's willing to take it right to Obama. Look at that Press conference Romney had on 5/31/2012 with failed Solyndra as the back drop. This is exactly what I am saying for the proposed cabinet members to do.
Face it: if Romney was able to take out his competitors in the primary don't you suppose Obama's hacks could have taken anyone of them out in the general?
Have Romney's boys sew the seeds of hopelessness and dissension in the Obama ranks, emphasize betrayal and failure of Obama to keep 2008 promises. Undermine, destroy and confound the opposition into a confused, ill-directed mass who find themselves fighting on more than one Alinskyized, freeze-the-target Presidential candidate, and instead spending their resources fighting 10+ personalities "running" for cabinet offices.
Who are the DNC’s "generals" they have to call into a fight like that? If the experience in Boston on 5/31/2012 is any indication of any thing I think we actually may have them on the run.
Team Romney and Tea Partiers are getting in the face of the likes of David Axelrod right on the steps of the Massachusetts State House, shouting him down, and rattling his sorry ass right on national TV.
It is happening, folks. The Islamo-Marxist is going down in November! Let's all be counted in making that happen, not sitting out, or wasting our energies on 3rd party distractions and certain losers!
It's no simpler stated than this: If you don't help Romney get elected anything else you do -- or don't do -- only helps Obama get re-elected. Voting 3rd party isn’t voting against Romney and voting against Obama – it is voting for who ever between the two of them wins the general – and in the end you have no standing to influence either one of them.
Instead of dividing us with all the endless sniping, let's quit doing the DNC's work for them and work on dividing THEM for a change!
For instance, gin up Blacks' and Hispanics' traditional revulsion for things "gay" and shove Joe Biden's pre-mature-ejacu-intellectual foot farther up the ass of our first "Gay President" -- a title just gifted to us by that Time magazine cover. Divide and conquer. Beat it like a drum. We can and we will win this thing!
Romney and Netanyahu both began strategic business careers at Boston Consulting Group. Agree with them or disagree with them, but admit that they are patient, long range, strategic thinkers.
One of the things Romney has been able to do in large part is to keep his persona distanced from the decisively well-calculated positioning of opposition to rivals in the primaries. His name-less, face-less cloaked "hit-men" are as effective as any guerrilla force out there, but all that activity is maintained at a plausibly deniable, comfortable, arms-length distance from Romney the candidate. I dare say it puts the likes of Nixon's and Clinton's "opposition research" squads to shame.
Sorry George. Enough of the "kinder-gentler" crap. Tight formations, and "gentlemen's wars" provided the fixed targets that let us destroy the British in our War of Independence.
I can see that machine going to work on Obama and leaving more than just a few lumps. Let's turn the "talents" of Romney's henchmen on to Obama, keep them disciplined, focused, and this side of doing any thing "Watergate," and let them go for the DNC's jugular.
If Romney is what we've got to work with this time around let's face that fact head on and let's hold his feet to the fire and make our will known as conservatives. If he's smart he'll seek our trust, and appoint many of our cabinet choices. To secure our trust he's going to have to both earn it and maintain it.
Romney will go a long and convincing way to doing that by arming, deputizing, and funding the campaign efforts of his "cabinet-in-waiting."
FReegards!
