I'm saying that a significant portion of conservative voters chose to not vote for Santorum because they felt betrayed by his support of Specter. They said in 2004 that they would not support Santorum in 2006.
As for looking around, we live around a significant number of people with Spanish accents. If I were to take them to my home state, MS, or any of the other states where we have lived (except NM), I can guarantee that a good portion of the people they would meet would label them as "illegals" when they are anything but. They are family-loving, hard-working, Christian Americans. They go to church. They play baseball. They pay taxes. Etc. They would easily support conservative candidates if those candidates presented them something to vote FOR. The area where we are is represented by a democrat who seems to be fairly safe. I did not even know who his opponent was until yesterday morning when I looked it up. The Republican party must not have sent him any help. The district a few miles away from us had an extremely conservative candidate running. I don't think he got any support from the national GOP. With campaign finance reform, candidates depend on help from the national parties unless they have significant personal wealth from the outset. Otherwise, they must meet the whim and fancy of whomever is controlling the purse-strings for party money.
Six months ago, we lived in a fairly diverse neighborhood. By and large, all the neighbors are/were conservative. I don't know for certain, but I would wager that on our side of the street, there would have been 9 conservative votes for Webb.
I think Ronald Reagan would win in a landslide if he were alive and well today. (and running for office)
I didn't realize Conservatives were such fair weather friends. One of their closest friends does one thing they don't like and OUT THE DOOR? Not only is that ridiculous, it borders on psychotic and that is why, my friend, Conservatives will never be back in power in our lifetime.