[H.Bowman]

I don't remember the hand-wringing on FR over the last president who destroyed the conservative brand (TSA, No-Child-Left-Behind, Prescription Drug Benefit, Amnesty, Harriet Miers, etc.) and brought us the current statist. I admired W on a personal level but he was a disaster for conservatism. Romney I suspect, will be more consistently conservative than W. As bad as I wanted a real conservative this year, NONE of the conservatives in the race had a chance against Obama. There was no way Bachman or Cain (don't even get me started on Newt) or Perry had a chance in the general. It is far more important we oust Obama NOW. 2016 we need to have a Rubio or Ryan or Christie or someone else who will actually shrink the federal budget, not slow the rate of growth.

[jpsb]

"I don't remember the hand-wringing on FR over the last president who destroyed the conservative brand"

Nicely said, BUMP!

[dirtboy]

Romney I suspect, will be more consistently conservative than W.

I have to disagree. President Romney, IMO, would exploit the divisions in the GOP and form alliances between RINOs and Dems to push his socialist-lite version of government.

Oh, and a big reason why conservatives are hesitant to back Romney is that we saw what happened with the GOP-E being let off the leash during the Bush years. They trashed the GOP brand and seem driven to do the same with Romney.

[WOSG]

“I don’t remember the hand-wringing on FR over the last president who destroyed the conservative brand (TSA, No-Child-Left-Behind, Prescription Drug Benefit, Amnesty, Harriet Miers, etc.) and brought us the current statist. I admired W on a personal level but he was a disaster for conservatism. Romney I suspect, will be more consistently conservative than W.”

You have an excellent point here. Many on FR havent looked at his agenda and platform - it is indeed more conservative than GWB’s 2000 campaign.

Romney’s flip flops created distrust, but at this point, the best plan is to vote for him then hold him to his promises.