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I stood against Mr. Bush as well in 2000, and I took a great deal of grief here on FR for writing about his weaknesses. Those who supported him seemed to think that they had license to cast insults. I'm glad to hear that I wasn't the only one with concerns.

I agree that FR objections may have played some part in Rudy Giuliani's loss, but if he had campaigned in New Hampshire, Michigan, and South Carolina, the race would have been very different. While I hate how much influence the early primaries have, the reality is that no one wins a nomination without an early primary or caucus win. Rudy Giuliani was wrong for the party, but tactical mistakes were as big as ideological issues in denying him the nomination.

I was at a meeting with some TEA Party folks a little over a week ago. The subject of who would lead the party and the conservative movement arose, and Mitt Romney's name was among those mentioned favorably. Others included Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford, and Eric Cantor. Strangely enough, Bobby Jindal isn't seen as highly favored as one would think here in Louisiana. If you're expecting the TEA Party movement to coalesce around hatred for Mr. Romney, you're fooling yourself. If you start kicking out TEA Party people who like Mr. Romney or have a generally positive feeling towards him, you're going to lose much of the TEA Party movement.

The GOP lost votes of some people by picking Sarah Palin to appeal to conservatives. While I think those who voted against the ticket because of Sarah Palin showed horrible ignorance and lack of judgment, their votes still counted as much as mine did. The GOP didn't ignore "us" in 2008, and the GOP still took the worst single-cycle loss that any party has taken in a long time. If "conservatives" define their objectives as dislike of Mitt Romney, both conservatives and Republicans will continue to lose. The conservative movement has to stand for something other than hating Mitt Romney. I hear what you say about smaller government, but the personal dislike of Mr. Romney seems to have the higher volume.

Bill

If you start kicking out TEA Party people who like Mr. Romney or have a generally positive feeling towards him, you’re going to lose much of the TEA Party movement.
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Did you really mean to post that ???

There are at least ONE MILLION TEA Party people...

MOST of them didnt vote for Romney...

and dont agree with his politics ...

or stance on the issues...

ROMNEY IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN A LEADER IN THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT..

If as you claim Romney is now a “leader” in the TEA Party Movement...

Then I dont belong there...

The TEA Partiers are mostly grassroots people so I’m sure there are lots of people with divergent ideas, however, the main concept is to oppose out of control, big spending, big taxing, overreaching, big government. In this regard, Mitt Romney is part of the problem, not the solution. He’s more of a fat cat party elite that we’re rebelling against rather than a rebellion participant. We sure as hell will not be supporting him here and I doubt many other TEA Partiers will either.