Your go-along, get-along philosophy has gotten us no where but closer and closer to what those who are unapologetically prinicipled - the leftists - have in mind for us. No thanks.
That's the peril of a democratic republic. It functions on the will of the people, and is subject to national mood swings. That mood is like the wind. You can sail with it, tack (i.e. zigzag) against it, or sail dead into it. We can't sail with it, and we're dead in the water if we sail into it.
We might not like the idea of a guy who will be strong on national defense, and weak on domestic issues. But the voter will go with him, or go with an outright weak-on-everything leftist. They aren't looking for Newt Gingrich or Dick Cheney.
Call the voters what you want. Irrational, immature, childish, spoiled, you name it. They may be all of those things, but it's America, and you either play the system, or it'll play you. I'd love to see some meat eating, fire breathing conservative jump to the fore and start reading liberals the riot act, but it's not in the cards for 2008.