Remember 92? Yes, I do and that’s the entire point. “Read my lips, no new taxes!”
Conservative Republicans do not turn out in droves for guys who raise taxes or fees, or who defend Roe v Wade as settled law, or who say abortion should be safe and legal in America, or who promote gays in the scouts or gays in the military, or who appoint liberal judges, or who push gun control, or who push amnesty, and for crying out loud conservatives do not turn out in record breaking numbers for liberal Republicans who push compulsory (socialist) health insurance!
Conservatives do not turn out in droves for liberals or RINOs!!
They could not energize the conservative base for Read my Lips Bush, nor for Bob Dull, nor for Juan McCain, and they could not energize the conservative base for mandate-loving Myth Romney!
We prayed otherwise (especially with the flurry of favorable poll activity near the end) , but this election was essentialy doomed from the moment that the Massachusetts liberal got the nomination, so don’t blame me, don’t blame the tea party, don’t blame the third parties, don’t blame the evangelicals, and don’t blame the conservative base. The blame for this flustercluck rests squarely on the shoulders of the incompetent, tea party-hating, conservative-hating GOP-e architects and wannabe puppet masters who engineered it.
If you wish to win the presidency as a Republican you must run a candidate who has a solid history of fully supporting the founding principles and the pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-small-government, pro-defense GOP platform.
Romney has no such history. Conservatism is a second language to him. He gave it the old college try (recently), as far as talking the talk, but he’d never walked the walk and had no real shot at it (IMHO).
Get a Clue GOP!
Funny how so many Republicans are panicking about how to reach out to hispanics, gays, etc. and not their conservative base. Ronald Reagan was savaged by the media and others because he had the support of the Moral Majority but it worked out for him. Still, I am afraid that the myth that the most moderate Republican primary candidate is ipso facto the most electable may never be dispelled. On November 6, I believed that Obama's re-election had to be prevented -- period -- and so I voted for a very flawed candidate, Mitt Romney. I do not regret my vote, but I hope the message sinks in that there are many, many other conservatives who abstained from voting and are likely to do so four years from now if their beliefs are ignored or trivialized and their votes are taken for granted.
Who might that be?