I’ve seen the Romney kind in parliamentary debate. You could ask him to take the opposite position, and he will do so without flinching. Good in a tournament, bad in a president.
You say you have been waiting for an alternative. Many of them have been chased out for the last four and one half years by Romney folk, starting with those picked up by the McCain campaign who started on Sarah Palin.
Supporting Romney at this time helps insure that these tactics will be used repeatedly, and then we can look forward to nothing except Romneys and worse in the future.
I know you have probably considered these points, as you are a thoughtful and valued poster here, but you finally forgot one crucial point that undoes all of the points you made:
Willard Mitt Romney is a bastard.
You make a really interesting point about a vote for Romney basically “rewarding” all the backstabbing and sleazoid tactics that he and his minions have been conducting the past three years. The way the entire establishment GOP went about after the mid-terms to undercut the Tea Party and grease the skids for Romney has totally alientated me from caring about either the GOP or its prospects. And I say this as someone who has voted exclusively Republican my entire life, never once wavering.
If the convention comes around, and I see nothing but Romney and a bunch of slimey yes-men establishment flaks and operatives out there praising him and celebrating amid the confetti, I’ll be looking at it with a sickened, jaundiced eye that is no better than what I’d reserve for the Dem convention. Never would have remotely predicted this a few years back, but I could go third-party at the drop of a hat nowadays.
This is true. The worst attacks on conservatives often come from fellow Repubs and when they do, surprise surprise, they always seem to come from Romney supporters. I wasn't always convinced Palin was our best hope for president, but I always saw her as stalwart and a fighter, and the attacks on her were almost always below the belt.
And, when by Repubs, almost always by either McCainiacs or Romniacs (often the same people).
So, not a chance I will support him.