You can go back and research the hundreds of discussion threads at the time. This is common knowledge. I never implied that Willard was the SINGULAR force in destroying her, but he WAS a substantial force for the simple fact that Palin was in his way, and he never lets any Conservative get in his way.
I vehemently disagree regarding Ted Kennedy. He absolutely saw that as his entrée to being handed the ‘96 Presidential nomination. It would have happened. The party was desperate for someone seen as a winner, and toppling Ted would’ve seen him coronated. Remember, the party was going to nominate the liberal RINO Colin Powell had he chosen to run.
I didn’t imply that Willard was going to throw the election as he did in 2012 had he been nominated in 1996, he would’ve run to win, not to play ringer for Bubba. He then would’ve implemented his leftist agenda, destroyed the GOP majority by 1998 and handed the election to the Democrat in 2000. Do I believe he is that malevolent ? You bet your ass I do.
Hundreds of people can be discussing something without any knowledge about whether or not it is true. People believe what they want to believe and in this case, they didn't demand evidence before they started speculating.
After the campaign, McCain's team was blaming Palin for the loss. This became "Romney people" on McCain's campaign, and by now it's Romney people in McCain's campaign while the campaign was still going on.
Politics is a dirty business and just about anything can go on, but there's no evidence beneath all the speculation.
I wouldn't buy a bridge from Mitt Romney, either. He's a slippery character, but he's not the spider at the middle of the web responsible for everything.
About 1996, all you'd have to say is "He ran to the left of Ted Kennedy" and Romney wouldn't have gotten the nomination. His father, who had a much more substantial record couldn't do it, and it was impossible that things would have been different a generation later. Colin Powell had the advantage of being African-American and not being a politician, but he wouldn't have won either.
Revisionist history, I guess, is going to make out that the party was a lot more liberal in the days of Gingrich, but remember, Rush Limbaugh was riding high twenty years ago, and the Republican party wasn't as liberal then as some people have convinced themselves that it was.