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Yours is an interesting point. I would never vote for Giuliani. You would never vote for McCain. Others on this thread have stated they would never vote for Romney.

You weren't here so let me opine.

In 2000, many Keyes supporters early on vowed never to vote Bush in the general. JimRob himself was pretty much there, maybe not quite but pretty much. And the Buchanan Brigade vowed the same. I was one of them.

In the end, you could count on one hand the number of FReepers from either group who actually didn't vote Bush. I certainly did. I posted here publicly, urging the rest of the Brigade to do so as well. Via FReepmail, virtually all confirmed that they did.

And, galling as it was for some of us to go to work for him, we all rolled up our sleeves to do anything we could to win the Battle For Floriduh for Bush. Turns out that FreeRepublic was still spoiling for a fight with the Dims. For instance, I compiled (with several others) a comprehensive fax and email list for the Floriduh legislature that led to those reports of how all their fax and email was hopelessly clogged for the duration. It was tailored for the use of the jFax.com fax service where many of us opened accounts specifically to shut down and isolate Floriduh. Not that I take credit for this personally, it was actually a race among FReepers to get every branch of the Floriduh political machine shut down. We needed the time for James Baker to devise a strategy to counter Gore's 5,000 trial lawyers on the ground in Floriduh, time for Republican operatives, including FReepers, to organize the mass demonstrations by Republicans against the Floriduh process. The libmedia was in shock at these tactics by Republicans actually taking to the streets. Ah, what a fond memory.

However, the level of opposition to Giuliani makes him a special case. You would see massive desertion if he were the nominee. Conceivably, FR might even become largely a third-party site though we would never abandon the GOP's conservative nominees. Actually, in the event of a Giuliani nomination, we would probably become entirely focused on state and congressional candidates.

The Mormonism theology bit aside, Romney hasn't provoked that level of antipathy with any faction. Except perhaps with some ex-Mormons.

That's my read anyway. We FReepers are a practical bunch. Very few FReepers have truly slammed the door in Mitt's face. At least, not yet. He still has to pass pro-life and pro-gun muster with those arms of our party.