I wouldn’t go by polls and there is so much crookedness in these races. Hunter is and was the best conservative candidate. He has a plan and he spoke clearly about his plan and how he would implement it. But the powers to be had already settled the race. It was Obama vs McCain. I think this woke some of the people up.
He wasn’t the best conservative candidate in the race because he he couldn’t even crack 10% in the polls while Thompson could.
I’ll always veer toward the conservative candidate but when there is more then one I’ll support the one that can draw double figures in national support.
As for ‘08 I wouldn’t even blame that all on TPTB. I think you had a number of conservative interests vying for supremacy unwilling to pander to each others causes. There are many different conservative planks. Fiscal, social, 2A, National security etc...but fiscal conservatives wanted to go it alone without the socials. Social conservatives wanted to go it alone without fiscal. It was a complete mess. Conservatives win when they respect each group and find a compromise candidate that can balance the different interests. The only two in that election I saw who could do that were Hunter and Thompson and as I said. Thompson did much better nationally. But Thompson had his own drawback to these various interests groups. He didn’t make any one of the planks his primary interest and 2) there is a subsection of the GOP that prizes eloquence and style over substance. hence Romney’s support. Result of all this was McCain skating by with a minority of the vote that is “moderate” and prizes rewarding those who are considered next in line in the establishment.