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Guiliani - bad
McCain - a disgrace
Huckabee - oh boy don’t get me started

Thompson and Hunter - campaigns are going nowhere fast

Although Romney isn’t perfect he is definitely the best of the pack. I think conservatives need to start getting behind Romney - at least the party would be intact..If McCain or Guiliani or Huckabee gets control the GOP will be lost in the wilderness.

"Although Romney isn’t perfect he is definitely the best of the pack. I think conservatives need to start getting behind Romney - at least the party would be intact."

Good call.

I notice that Jim Robinson kind of skipped over the whole question of economy, size of Government and economic freedom - ahem, an issue that is THE central difference between a liberal and a conservative and between the GOP and the Democrats. Big Govt vs small Govt, higher tax rates vs tax cuts and more regulation vs less regulation. It's one area where nanny-state RINO McCain who voted against the Bush tax cuts is bad and where tax-and-spend big Govt populist Huckabee is worse.

Ignoring that aspect is a big big mistake - and it is the big mistake that is causing otherwise conservative people to jump on the bandwagon of the non-conservative Huckabee.

A lot of the cultural issues will not get fixed no matter who is President (eg he wont even vote on gay marriage), but the President sets the agenda on the taxation and spending for the Federal Government in a very direct way, almost as direct as his influence as commander-in-chief on foreign affairs. national security need to be the #1 and the economic and Govt needs to be #2 issues to factor in. Then social issues - life, gay marriage, guns, etc. are a #3.

When you do factor it all in, you come out IMHO with a ranking of: Romney (Good on 1,2, W on 3) >> McCain (W on 2,3, Good on 1) > Rudy (Good on 1, G/W on 2, X on 3) > Huckabee (X/Bad on 2, W on 1 (carteresque), Good on 3).

That is the choice that David Keene of the American Conservative Union made. The choice Paul Weyrich, cofounder of Moral Majority made ... Judge Robert Bork, Sen Jim DeMint, and many other conservative leaders.

It's not to say Romney is a Reagan conservative (I call him a smarter more articulate GWB) but he's the best of this top four mixed bag.

Jim Rob has just said most of what I've been saying for months now...and I've taken LOTS of heat for it. What you suggest "ain't happening. We'll pencil in our dogs and cats before we vote Romney. We're finished settling for second best with terrible men who "pretend" to represent our conservative values. We're either going to win big this time, or lose big, and although we don't look forward to losing, we are fearless in this and as prepared as we can be. I personally think we're going to lose. But that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

Don't get mad at me for saying yet again what I'm about to say. I won't leave you with a decent option, and I know that this frustrates people.

We won't vote for RINOs, but we won't vote for leftists either. To us, they are both one and the same. IF the GOP nominates a RINO, it's OVER. We'll make sure of it by the very nature of what we have decided to do long in advance. People like us will ensure that the conservative voter base stays split even though in sheer panic others will hope in vain that we will (logically) rally behind a "best of the worst" such as Romney. But we're not motivated by fear. In fact, we're unmoving on this.

When the dust settles and we all lament the outcome, your side will point at our side and tell us how stupid we are because we didn't rally behind the "best of the worst" and therefore handed the win over to our enemy. Of course we won't see it this way, and there we will stand, eyeing each other with contempt.

I get no joy in predicting this. In fact, I'll be happy if I'm wrong and people thoroughly rub it in after the fact! But this is the way that I think it's going to go....and in fact this is the way that it is going NOW.

Guiliani - bad McCain - a disgrace Huckabee - oh boy don’t get me started
Thompson and Hunter - campaigns are going nowhere fast

Thompson has a strategy which did not attempt to win in NH or in Michigan, two states where Independents or even Democrats are in position to throw significant support to John McCain. The Democratic primary is moot because the DNC will not seat any delegates won there because they moved their primary too early. So the Democratic primary voters, under the wierd MI open primary system, have the ability to vote in the Republican primary - and nothing to gain by voting in their own primary. Romney has set himself up to need a win in Michigan - under circumstances where Ronald Reagan himself might not have been able to beat John McCain in Michigan.
So I wouldn't be giving up on Thompson just yet; Guiliani hasn't won anything yet and may lose ground.
This thing looks to me like it actually could come down to a multiballot convention.