“Why not hope for a brokered convention? What does the conservative movement has to lose?”
Because it’s false hope, McCain will get the nomination in a brokered convention.
What does the conservative movement have to lose?
Everything. If McCain wins, the lesson will be that the Republican candidate can win by giving conservatives the finger.
If Romney wins, the lesson is that if you want to run as a Republican, you have to pay homage to the conservatives. So in one scenario, conservatives still have clout in the future, in the other, conservatives will be ignored.
That’s what the conservative movement has to lose.
That’s what the conservative movement has to lose.
A very good point.
I'm not sure that would be much of a victory when the result is a nominee who no conservative would have found at all acceptable before the process began and only become marginally acceptable by default.
If Romney gets the nomination and is creamed in the general election (which is very possible), the pundits are going to say, "see, a conservative can't win" despite the fact that Romney is no conservative. If Romney does get elected, we get stuck with the most liberal Republican our party has ever nominated. By accepting Romney as a conservative, we are allowing the Rockefeller Wing of the Republican Party to infiltrate the conservative movement.