[C. Edmund Wright]

I get that, and understand where you’re coming from. But I don’t think you can take those two races out of context and really get an historically accurate reading. And as I said, he was just a more conservative guy inside himself in 07-08 than he was four years later - even as he ran a cynical campaign of flip flops.

In 07-08, he hid his conservatism a little due to what the WSJ and Fox News panel types were saying....and then let it rip the day he dropped out of the race. Had he run his entire campaign like that, he’d have won the nomination and maybe the Oval.

Then in 11-12, he ran as more conservative than he actually was at the time. Hitting the fastball is important, but you must be able to track the curve as well.....

[cripplecreek]

All I know for sure is that I will never have a vote for Trump on my conscience.

[joesbucks]

Momentum was against Romeny in 08 as McCain carried Super Tuesday. So he dropped out. But it was just prior to Super Tuesday that Rush made the comments about Mitt meeting the three legs of conservatism. That was after several weeks and even months of saying don't hold Massachusetts governing against him as he had to govern as a moderate to win and then get things through a liberal Mass legislature.

And while his 08 CPAC speech was Reaganesque, was that the real Mitt or was that a speech designed to play to the CPAC crowd which is decidedly red meat or was Mitt really the much more liberal Massachusetts governor?

Rush's words about Mitt were a means to an end in both '08 and '12.