This piece is fatally narrow, as you point out. Fred would help avoid these difficulties, and so would McCain, in my humble opinion. I know the name “McCain” has been poison of late, but his recent conversion on taxes and immigration is, I believe, at least as sincere as Romney’s.
My main issue with Fred is desire and tenacity (or a noticeable lack thereof). He just doesn’t seem to want the nomination very much, evidenced by his late start, lackluster campaigning style and propensity to schedule few events or even cancel some of the ones already on his calendar. Sorry to all you Fred boosters out there, but he just doesn’t enthrall me. . .
His conversion would end the moment he had the nomination won. I think we could hold MItt's feet to the fire, but McCain wouldn't care - he considers us all to be contemptible racist science-denying greedy slobs.