It’s the Free Republic way. It happened in 2000, it happened in 2008, and it will happen again in 2012. Every single Republican candidate will be torpedoed until we’re left with a sad sack like McCain with no chance of winning.
It was McCain's turn. The Republicans have a long history of nominating "the next guy in line". Nixon, Ford, GHW Bush, Dole and McCain are all examples. The Republican establishment doesn't want a Conservative at the top. The only real stand out in the past 40 years is Ronald Reagan. The country clubbers couldn't stop him, but they sure tried, didn't they?
Actually I think the real problem is we split our conservative vote between too many candidates, and the establishment RINO then wins by a plurality.
It happens every election cycle; we all get fired up about different conservatives, and then start bickering back and forth about who is “more’ conservative, strengthening our resolve to ‘not compromise’ our ‘principles’.
All the while the establishment candidate is racking up delegates and moving toward the nomination.
See: Nixon, Ford, Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, and now Romney.
I am sick of the RINO parade and would really like a real conservative this time.
I honestly think we need to come together early behind a single conservative and keep our conservative base strong and united.
This will be very hard to do with the various factions of conservatives.
To me that candidate is Sarah Palin, but if we split our votes and dilute our power, we will hand the nomination to the establishment RINO, just as we did in 2008.
I’m thinking a vote in the primaries for anyone but Sarah is a defacto vote for Romney.