I’m old enough I can actually remember back where Republican candidates tried to contrast themselves with Leftists.
Today our candidates try to develop an image that makes liberals think they’re just like their opponent. And then they wonder why Conservatives don’t back them.
Romney won in lib MA by playing ‘I am not as liberal as that other guy’ and he didn't run for a second term. Much like the RINO MD governor Erhlich he probably would have lost another race.
Romney will say whatever he thinks will work at any given moment. If he has values we sure don't know what they are. Dems will try their best to exploit this, Rs will circle the wagons to defend him. Romney will try to avoid taking ANY specific positions before the election as you can see now. He knows they will just get him in trouble with someone.
After a very bad experience with GWB I can not join in this game of automatically defending him, unless I agree with what he is saying of course.
WE ARE SCREWED!
To be fair the countries demographics have changed much since those days we remember, and we had GWB who did great damage. Look at massive immigration and all those new Americans saw GWB as the shining example of a Republican POTUS. The R cult won’t accept how damaging this was. They never saw Carter, they saw two term GWB.