Romney 4,595,908Or another way to look at these numbers: the "establishment" didn't "ram Romney down our throats", we did it to ourselves, by dividing our vote:
Santorum 3,209,301
Gingrich 2,284,557
Paul 1,191,026Vote totals so far. Whether you like it or not, I personally loathe it, a plurality of the GOP electorate, not the GOP ESTABLISHMENT, voted for Romney. Now we must concentrate on how best to kick Obama out of office.
5.6 million conservative vs 4.6 million Romney.
And I'm not even counting Ron Paul, which is arguably beyond hope.
WE rammed Romney down our own throats by not sticking together.
Once the first big conservative vote was in from South Carolina (Iowa is not big and NH is not conservative) we should have COALESCED behind the winner and we would have 5.6 million votes for the non-Romney candidate.
But we conservatives don't know how to coalesce. We don't know how to work together. We only know how to bitch and moan about the "establishment" after we divide our clear majority into 2 non-working minorities.
We. Are. Stupid.
That is exactly my point all the rants about this candidate or that candidate or about going the third party route are self defeating. The loudest rants come from those who refuse to look in the mirror and take some responsibility for the mess we now ourselves in. The volatility this primary cycle suggests how divided conservatives are and how willing they are to surrender to the liberals.