[manapua]

Glad to see I'm not alone. Very disheartening times. I had just come to terms with the fact that Nat'l Review now stands for nothing after they suddenly began painting Romney as a conservative. I can sort of write them off as "the establishment," but when the grassroots-oriented talkies begin down this disingenuous, Orwellian route where Romney is a suddenly conservative... absolutely speechless. As Antoninus said, if we're down to Romney it's way too late. Pinning the hopes of conservatism on a liberal like Romney? That's a nonsensical option.

The discussion within the movement ought to be about post-2008 politics and where we ought to go. Because no matter which party wins the Presidency, conservatism has lost a major battle. And sadly, many intellectual and grassroots leaders are damaging themselves with this odd shilling for Romney.

[Antoninus]

The discussion within the movement ought to be about post-2008 politics and where we ought to go. Because no matter which party wins the Presidency, conservatism has lost a major battle. And sadly, many intellectual and grassroots leaders are damaging themselves with this odd shilling for Romney.

Exactly. In my opinion, many of them are going to go down with Flipper. The worst thing that could happen to them is for him to win. Mitt Romney is a liberal con-artist and will govern as such. No conservative should willingly help put such a politician in office.

[DoughtyOne]

You watch how many folks backtrack once McCain has been slaughtered at the polls. “Well, I never liked him, I just wanted to keep Hillary out. I knew all along what a vile man he was as it relates to conservatims.”

Backbone is standing on principle before the fact.

[CharlesWayneCT]

When conservatives are willing to spit on conservative principles being sold by an articulate and forceful spokesperson, simply because of that person’s past, we are in real trouble.

Sure, given two people giving their heart and soul and money to sell conservatism to the country are available, and one of them has been there longer, go with the guy with the longer record.

But Romney IS the guy with the longer record, because nobody else is standing up for conservative values now. It’s Romney or McCain. One has a list of 26 solid consrvative positions. The other is running on a platform that is riddled with anti-conservative positions.

And you’d reject the solid conservative platform because you fear the messenger? And you’d denigrate those who simply don’t have the same mistrust that you do?

[JRochelle]

The jerks at National Review deserve what they are getting.

I was reminded about this by an email Laura Ingraham read this morning.

NR was one of the worst bashers of George Allen in 2006, heck they were no better than the Washington Post.

Kathryn Lopez knew that Allen would be a serious competitor of Mitt’s in the campaign for President.
She is so in love with Mitt, she decided her and bunch needed to take Allen out for her Mittster.

Well I am sure enjoying all her moaning and weeping now.
I am laughing 24/7.

[HKMk23]

Here’s where it all hits bottom:

Levin’s right. Mitt Romney IS more Conservative than McCain.

If Romney had been the Senator from Arizona these last many years we wouldn’t have:
Romney-Feingold
Romney-Kennedy
Romney-Leiberman
...

Mitt Romeny would not have been a “Gang of 14” instigator, nor even a participant.

Mitt Romney would not have opposed President Bush’s tax cuts.

On the core issue of our times, I believe that Mitt Romney will stay the course in Iraq, and hold firm in our global march against terrorists, and terrorist organizations.

Further, I’ll go out on a limb and assert that Mitt Romney will prove to be a better friend to Israel than G. W. Bush has been.

Is Romney perfect? HA! No, nobody is, but McCain is WORSE! WAY worse.

Romeny can at least openly discuss how his thinking has changed on issues. Romney can comfortably admit that he’s been wrong in the past.

McCain, when asked point-blank about past mistakes, can’t even begin to get his mouth to form the words. He hems and haws, stutters, stammers, and does pirouettes all the way around Robin Hood’s barn before petering out in a stinking bog of evasion and mealy-mouthed equivocation.

Tell me honestly, do you REALLY want that in a President??

I came from the far right end of the Conservative bench, and I was rooting for someone more pincipled than Romeny. None of those guys are left, but, of the three credible candidates that remain, Romney is THE MOST conservative, the most mentally stable, the most genuine as a person — he’s not 100% in any area, but hes at least 80% across the board. He’s got negatives in his past, but they’re not the egregious, national, Constitution-subsuming negatives that MCCain has “blessed” us with.

I also think there’s a great deal of credibility to the argument that the MSM likes McCain because he’s NOT conservative, and they understand that if he wins the GOP nomination, he’ll be cannon fodder. Heck, he and Hillary are such buds up in the Senate, that if they’re both nominated by the respective parties, this could turn into the most lovey-dovey Presidential campaign in U.S. History. And, BOY would the country be UNITED, again. All of the alphabet orgs on the left could just take the whole election cycle off, because it wouldn’t matter all that much to them who won. All the usual divisiveness would be gone from the campaign... The whole thing would play out like a college bowl game, except that the last play will feature McCain and Hillary in a Shakespearean “et tu, Brute” moment, and we’ll be inaugurating Hillary on 1-20-09.

THAT is what you will get if McCain becomes the GOP nominee.