Front-Runner Failure

In recent years, the Republican Party has conferred its presidential nomination the way companies used to hand out gold watches at retirement parties. Candidates are rewarded for long years of service, finishing second the last time around, and politely waiting their turn. Perhaps it is a reflection of the conservative temperament: while Democrats frequently nominate fresh faces, Republicans tend to prefer the tried and true. Patience is a virtue, respect your elders, good things come to those who wait.

Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain won the GOP nomination after finishing second in the party's last round of competitive primaries. After the crushing disappointment of the close 1960 presidential election, Richard Nixon rallied loyally behind Barry Goldwater at a time when many other Republican leaders effectively sat out the race. For this, Nixon was given his second chance in 1968.

Even the one recent exception proves the rule. When George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, began exploring a presidential bid some polls found that nearly half of Republican voters thought he was his father, the former president. He entered the race with a nearly insurmountable advantage in name recognition. The second-place finisher from the last time around, Patrick Buchanan, bolted the GOP for the Reform Party in October 1999. Bush the son became the natural front-runner.

In return for their gold watches, Nixon and Reagan led the Republican Party to the White House. They were both reelected in 49-state landslides. Reagan missed out on making it 50 by less than one vote per precinct in Minnesota, his 1984 challenger's home state. But the Dole and McCain campaigns had the feel of futility about them almost from the beginning.

Why should anyone be REWARDED with a nomination
after backstabbing the LAST CANDIDATE to a loss?

Romney threw both Elections 2008 and 2010 to the DNC.

Everyone now knows about Rove and TeamRomney vs the GOP candidates in 2010.
In 2008, the McCain/Palin ticket was up ++4 to 10 pts. in some polls, days prior to the election.
So rather than helping the GOP, Romney once again
had his backstabbing TeamROMNEY
attack Gov. Palin to throw Election2008 to the DNC.

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

In recent years, the Republican Party has conferred its presidential nomination the way companies used to hand out gold watches at retirement parties.

Good observation. And then their rinominee, who runs his campaign like it's nothing more than a Sunday round of golf at the club, loses and we get stuck with the bill, bar tab and have to clean up the mess.

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