People who are happy that Romney lost in NH to McCain in the hopes that Fred will rise from the ashes in SC are fooling themselves. McCain is the one who needed to be knocked out in NH. As it stands now, McCain will be the nominee with only token opposition from Huckabee the rest of the way. People will start coalescing around McCain. Romney losing NH is a DISASTER for the Republican Party. Romney or Thompson needed to be the Republican nominee and now it looks like it will be neither.
McCain has huge negatives in SC from his history with them, so I can’t imagine him becoming “inevitable” after he loses the next big race in 11 days.
At this point, I can see nothing but a brokered convention. There will be a five man race to the end, even with several having to stop advertising after Feb 5th. No one will have the magic 1191 needed to clinch, so why take your name out when you can wheel and deal with your collection?
Romney doesn’t have a prayer against Hillary in the general.
If we have to have a RINO as the nominee, I prefer McCain. He is a fighter, who can’t have the label of flipper attached.
Lots of football to be played yet.
I agree with you. This could be disastrous for the Republican party and conservatives in general. Too many conservatives here are leading with emotions rather than with reason in my opinion. The less emotional thinkers among conservatives know that Romney, though not as solid a conservative as they might wish, is at this moment the best hope we have of keeping the country from dramatically turning to the left. Thompson would be great if we could just plunk him down into the White House but as of now it seems he’s a long shot to even be the Republican nominee. McCain is someone who, besides that fact that most conservatives cannot stand him, would be torn apart in the general election. The reason for his ascendancy is partly that it looked like he was out of the running for a while and so the other candidates ignored him, which allowed him to regain his footing and sneak back into the mix virtually unnoticed and unscathed. Also the media like him. Especially since most conservatives don’t. But wait until he runs against a Democrat and then the media won’t be quite so friendly and then you’ll hear more allusions to his infamous temper and health issues and age and questions about his mental stability. As to Huckabee, the media like him at the moment, just as they do with McCain, but later would turn on him savagely for being too religious and paint him as a Jerry Falwell or Pat Robinson.
With McCain the media favor him because he ruffles the feathers of conservatives. With Huckabee, they are going easy on him because he would be so easy to tear apart later on. They would simply make him out as a preacher in politician’s clothing. Which is basically what he is. And which is something the media generally loathe and will loathe again if they can propel him to be the Republican nominee.
But Romney, even if one is suspicious of his conservativeness, is now stuck with those conservative positions whether he likes it or not. To flip again at some point on a position (such as abortion) after elected President would destroy any legacy he might have had, not to mention destroy any hopes of a 2nd term. So regardless of whether he is a genuine conservative or not, he would generally govern as a conservative and in any event would be far better than having a Clinton or Obama making important decisions about the WOT and the border and on supreme court nominees and so forth.
I fear conservatives are in the process of knocking out the candidate who can best defeat the Democrats and who can best keep the country from staggering far to the left. Perhaps Thompson will suddenly rise up in the polls, but if not, do we want to be stuck with Huckabee or McCain as the nominee? I would rather take my chances with Romney.
Romney became unelectable in IOWA....high time you stopped fooling yourself.
The meesage was loud and clear...the “anti-mormon-cult” bigot vote will be out in force throughout the campaign.
He’s done.
Fred OTOH, has been playing the Super Tuesday Strategy from the beginning if you bothered to listen to Mary Matalin.
Fred supporters aren’t going to switch. You’re guy blew his win early strategy because of the above.
See you Super Tuesday. :)
p.s. Fred is already in for Kansas *after* Super Tuesday...
Tells me he’s in this for the long haul.