Romney is the last sliver of hope that mending might occur, otherwise it will be civil war and you and your "I voted 3rd party on principle" pals had better be ready.
That is exactly what you'll receive with Romney, however, with your eye's on the “Big Prize”, you won't notice.
Romney agenda...(after all the lip service accomplishes his election to the Presidency) are:
AGW, with sovereignty abdicated to the UN.
Israel's National security, abdicated to the UN.
Abortion rights, via UN.
Gun rights, abdicated to the UN.
The list is extensive.
Would Obama do anything less if reelected? No!
Obama won't get reelected...The king is dead, long live the king.
King Romney will prove no different. I expect you to defend him in the same embarrassing manner that other socialists have defended Obama.
1. I don't know about others, by my third party vote has as much to do with hard calculation of helping the conservatives I'll be voting for down-ticket; you are mistaken in thinking "principle" is the only reason to vote this way. Every third party vote will help deny a mandate for the next socialist president we're guarnateed to get no matter who we vote for.
2. Your desperation to avoid anything like Civil War by sanctioning Romney as the defacto leader of the Republican party, represents a solid march on the path toward where England is now. Heed Brother FReeper gzzimlich. In April he wrote:
I live in a country (the UK) where the “conservative” choice supports gay marriage, socialised healthcare and the “right” of unions to make domestic labour almost prohibitively costly to employers. I emphasize that this is the “conservative” candidate (David Cameron.)
Romney might seem like a decent option when compared with Obama, but my country ... is a prime example of what happens when you compromise your principles and start rationalising voting for the lesser of two evils.
Preventing Romney from getting a mandate presents "the last sliver of hope that mending might occur." The only way to vote for that is to vote third party. Every third party vote -- and there will be plenty from former Democrats who have increasingly come to loathe Obama -- will count toward denying a mandate for WHICHEVER government authoritarian statist wins, Obama or Romney.
Or does principle, not to mention character, only matter when the politician is a Democrat?
Forgot to ping you to my post 105!