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Ford lost in 1976 and that brought us Reagan. I think the long-term chances for the conservative movement are better if Obama wins than if Romney wins. The party and the sheeple voters would hopefully learn their lesson, with Rick, Sarah and Newt gaining credibility by having accurately predicted that Romney would be a bad nominee, and the voters would nominate a conservative next time.

Plus, if Obama loses, he will remain a force in the Democratic party and be able to come back and run again for a 2nd term at any time, especially if Romney fails to gain any sort of success or popularity in his first term. And if Romney governs as he did in Taxachusetts, he will be tremendously unpopular as he was there.

If Obama wins this time, he’s likely to remain gridlocked against a Republican House and maybe Senate. That will make for a weak Obama term, which would not be the case if he gets renominated and reelected in 2016 in a strong anti-Romney movement that would bring with it a liberal Congressional majority and single-payer health care. This will happen if Romney has a term like Bush, Sr.’s first or Bush Jr.’s second.

Yes there will probably be short-term pain if Obama is reelected on things like energy prices. But we might actually be able to get a veto-proof majority elected in Congress in 2014 in which case Obama would become the lamest of ducks. If Obamacare is overturned this year and Obama loses all that regulatory authority that comes with it, then there’s even less to worry about with a 2nd Obama term. Judicial appointments would be a problem, but even they aren’t permanent and don’t represent the end of the country. If Newt’s plan to counter the liberal courts was put into place later, it could even mitigate the damage judges could do.

I highly doubt Free Republic will start zotting people for planning a long-term strategy to help the conservative movement succeed, of which letting Romney lose would be a necessary part of it. Romney is not a conservative and cannot and will not help our movement, he can only hurt it. He can only move the Republican party to the left, which is a recipe for failure, and which also gives the Democrats cover to move even further to the left, making them even more dangerous.

I think now that Sarah Palin has gotten over her surge in reality TV and celebrity fame, she has been boning up better on policy. She is sounding a lot better in interviews this year than she ever has before. I think a Romney loss, just like Ford’s loss, could pave the way for our new Reagan in 2016. Palin/Gingrich is a fantastic possibility. Playing defense on Obama for 4 years in order to lead up to that is a LOT more appealing than either getting 4 years of Romney followed by Obama coming back to unseat him with a radically liberal Congressional majority on his coattails, or 8 years of Romney with a new permanently center-left Republican party that TOTALLY marginalizes the conservative movement.

What the ABO crowd is asking us to do now will NEVER stop if Romney wins. Everyone must understand you are not asking us to make just one exception in November. You will ask the same thing if Romney runs for a second term and you will ask the same thing if the candidate after him is Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Scott Brown, Joe Lieberman, or whichever liberal candidate the party decides to nominate. If you are willing to abandon your principles now, you’ll never stop doing it. The difference between the ABO crowd and the anti-Romney crowd is that we are actually looking a little bit into the future and can see where things are going. If Romney is elected, you will eventually arrive at our point-of-view. We just don’t need to actually wait and see what happens when the end result is obvious if you just stop and think 2 steps ahead.

And, yes, you can argue that Newt, Palin and everyone else is saying they will support the nominee, whoever it is. From their perspective, it’s probably better they not damage their position in the party, so they still have a chance to retake the reins of power at some point. But, in the back of their minds, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re hoping for a Romney loss so that they can work to get the party back in track for 2016, a lot sooner than it could happen if Romney wins.