[loreldan]

Maybe. But it's the voters in the Republican Party who are voting for McCain. If leaders of the Republican Party chose the candidate for us your idea would work, but the idiots voting are the reason McCain looks to be the nominee.

[Perdogg]

Yes, we failed to support Fred.

[spindoctor]

The leaders have been and are continuing to ask us to support the libs in our party. They bear some culpability for the McCain disaster. They’re not innocent bystanders.

[TonyWpi]

The key reasons to why we’re in this mess is pretty simple:

The “conservative votes” are being split between Romney and the Huckster.

If Rudy had stayed in the race he may have pulled more “liberal” votes from McAmnesty.

I really wish Fred had put more into this when he started the race. He had momentum when he started but lost it. By the time he picked things up it was too late.

I still blame the party heads for not getting behind a conservative from the start.

[ClearCase_guy]

I don't think it's that simple. The voters may think that they are making independent decisions, but to a large extent, voters behave in the way that is largely pre-ordained for them. Which is a polite way of saying that the process is somewhat rigged.

What states are first in the primary process? Mostly the Liberal ones.
Why was Bob Dole a nominee? It was his turn.
Why is John McCain the nominee? It's his turn.
At the debates, why didn't Tancredo, Hunter, or Thompson get a lot of questions? No one wants to hear from those guys.
Why was Duncan Hunter excluded from a debate even though he had performed better than Giuliani in primaries? No one wants to hear from him.

So, when the voters go to the polls, who do they support? The big three: McCain, Romney, Huckabee. These were the three that were hand-picked by the MSM and that process was aided and abetted by the Republican Party establishment.

The process is broken. Yeah, I suppose the voters could fight back, but that's truly asking a lot. They're called sheeple for a reason.

[technomage]

But it's the voters in the Republican Party who are voting for McCain

True, there are Republicans voting for McLame, but he has yet to win a majority of the registered Republican vote in any state. He is getting a ton of votes from independents, and in many cases Democrats who cross over.

In Florida nearly 20% of his vote were those that had changed their party from D to RD (perfectly legal in Florida) and they can now switch back.

And, where there is a caucus the peeples do not even vote. And we all saw the underhanded, backroom dealing between McLame and Huckster that handed West Virginia to Huckster after Romney won the first delegate vote. The voters of West Virginia had nothing to do with that.

As many have pointed out here, too many of the early states that vote are liberal states, even if they are red states. The Republican leadership has done nothing over the years to pressure truly conservative states to move their primaries up to balance out the playing field.

Also, McLame has received the equivalent of millions of dollars of free, POSITIVE publicity from the media. Their obvious and blatant attempt at manipulation. And, to an extent, it has worked.