"I must've missed the place where someone, anyone, was suggesting he be put to death."
Nice try, putting into that kind of context.
In effect, he is being stoned to death because the purpose of this article. and most of the rest I've seen in the last two days, is to stifle debate, and to cause dissention in the ranks.
I know in my heart of hearts that barring some earth-shattering event that causes a complete re-evaluation of the political landscape, theman is doomed to fail at the primary level. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have anything to add to the debate, and that is exactly what is being done here: by concentrating on the negative, we're discounting the possibility that there's a positive in there somewhere.
If that's how you choose to practice your politics, then I hope you are happy with whatever lock-step-ideological, pure-as-the-driven-snow (wink, wink), no-idea-that-didn't-originate-in-Scripture, milquetoast eventually garners the nomination.
You must be too young to know that when you accuse someone of 'lock step', you are accusing them of collaboration with Nazism. Is that what you're doing?
The fact that Giuliani and Romney are now taking conservative stances while appealing to the GOP primary electorate is an old technique Republican Presidential candidates have used since Richard Nixon ran in 1968. Their respective records and political stances while public office holders in their respective states were decidedly liberal. To his credit, McCain's record is not as liberal as those of Romney or Giuliani. However, his record has been one of compromise with the liberal Democrats in the Senate, as evidenced by the notorious McCain-Feingold "campaign reform" bill. There is no reason to suppose that an administration led by any of these three men will be better in achieving conservative goals than that of the current President and plenty of cause to believe the reverse, based on their past careers and political statements.
If the RINOs shut conservatives out of the Republican Party, we will face a bleak future: socialism, moral degeneracy, and loss of national identity by the glass (RINOs) or by the bottle (Democrats). Our political system makes a viable, competitive third party a near impossibility. Real Americans might as well abandon politics and look out for themselves and their loved ones as best as they can.