I'm definately with you on this; we have way too much trashing of otherwise good conservative candidates here on FR, but I suppose that is just the "arena of ideas" which makes FR great.
In 2012, I suppose it'll be anybody but 0bama!
Knocking someone in the primary and the general are two different things. I have no desire to see Perry run in the primary and the only way I'd vote for him is if the alternative was an uber-RINO. However, if he was the nominee I'd crawl over broken glass to vote for him over Obama.
What makes matter worse is that there was pretty much conservative consensus that Brady was one of the three "acceptable" conservatives in the primary, along with Adam Andrejewski and Dan Proft. (the three unacceptable combiners were Jim Ryan, Kirk Dillard, and Andy McKenna). Even the latter three might have been "hold your nose" choices if we needed to defeat Quinn, but the first three were overall pretty reliable conservatives.
It would be like me (hypothetically) saying Michele Bachmann is my first choice, Pawlenty's my second, and Herman Cain is my third on my acceptable list. Then AFTER Cain won the primary in an upset, I pick one wrong position he took and harp on it constantly during the general election to portray him as a RINO scumbag, and announce I'm voting for Obama -- even after Bachmann endorses Cain.
The cut-off-your-nose "conservatives" who opposed Brady in the genereal election blantantly went back on their word that they would support him in the general election despite the fact he was not their first choice. That election was clearly stolen by Pat Quinn, but the RATs wouldn't have had the opportunity to steal it if the votes weren't close enough for them to manufacture enough in Chicago to overcome the rest of the state. What makes it even more tragic is Brady was the MOST conservative nominee we've had since the 1950s. Good luck to the lunatics who opposed him because he didn't do their bidding on one or two bills so they demanded a "more conservative" nominee. Obviously they're going to have to slate themselves in 2014 because nobody else will be able to pass their purity test. They're going to be very lonely in their attemps to find a viable candidate next time around who's "more conservative" than Brady.
We also have to remember there are alot of "conservative" combiners who may preach very solid conservative principles in public, but behind-the-scenes they're working for the Dems. These moles in the conservative movement need to be called out and exposed. A perfect example is Jim Tobin, the President of the Illinois chapter of Taxpayers United and the self-described "taxpayers watchdog". This guy spent years telling conservatives how much "better" things were under Blago when he bankrupted this state. In the last election, he not only endorsed Pat Quinn's disgraced ex-running mate (crooked Chicago machine RAT Scott Lee Cohen) for Governor, but he actually spent money to distribute anti-Bill Brady literature photoshopping him behind bars and claiming Brady (who had an impeccible record in the state Senate opposing higher taxes) was the "taxpayer's villian". NOT ONE CENT should EVER go to "conservative" Jim Tobin again. The best thing that could happen for "Illinois taxpayers" would be to see Tobin's organization disbanded. If he's made Illinois "taxpayer friendly", I'm the easter bunny.
Then there's the flat out lies. An example I always use is the Chris Christie critics who keep claiming he's pro-abortion. If you must bash someone who agrees with you 80% of the time after they're the nominee, at least pick something he geninuely did wrong. Here is Illinois we kept hearing "Brady's working for Topinka" fiction. All the B.S. they shoved the last four years about Brady secretly being a combiner and being in kahoots with Topinka was also undeniably proven false during the 2010 election season, since the combine approved scum like Kirk and Topinka avoided Brady like the plague and wouldn't lift a finger to endorse him, and their combine buddies pulled off every dirty trick in the book to defeat Brady on election day. Futhermore, all the flak Brady took for "splitting the conservative vote" in 2006 (because he wouldn't drop out when he was in third place in the primary) was clearly an example of "do as we say, not as we do" from the Brady haters. When they found the shoe was on the other foot in 2010 and their favorite conservative (Andrejewski) was polling in 5th place and had no chance of winning the primary, NOT ONE of them demanded he drop out and support the highest polling conservative (Brady) so a RINO wouldn't win.
Bottom line is I've had it with alot of "conservative leaders" in Illinois who keep coming up with stupid slogans like "Think Red" when all their silly election stunts just make Illinois more and more communist. Republicans are their own worst enemy in this state.
I understand your concerns. I will take a RINO over a straight Democrat any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I’d prefer an ideological purist, but one can’t expect someone who can win in the most conservative district of Alabama to be able to do the same in Connecticut or a similar lib area.