Not at all. It means that there are NO conservative candidates with a snowball's chance of election. That is the reality. Conservatism is being shoved out of the GOP. If we support liberalism within the GOP that is what we will get. Conservatism will survive no matter what but it will be easier to fight if we can keep some of it within the Republican Party. If conservatism is completely eliminated from the RP it will have a tougher time finding an avenue to seat conservatives in office.
McCain has clearly shown his contempt for conservatism and his betrayal of it. Will he be less arrogant and more sympathetic to it when he is POTUS than he has been as one of 100 Senators? That doesn't make any sense.
That's a bunch of crap. There were 5 guys running who tried to be conservative. But they all were flawed, and the base was split among them.
There was Hunter, who was pretty conservative, but had no money, no name recognition, and got written off BY THE GRASS ROOTS early on. No one told ppl what to do about it. They calculated that he wasn't a winner. End of story.
There was Tancredo. Single issue guy. Same boat as Hunter. Written off by most in the base as not a real player.
There was Romney. He tried to convince us he was a conservative, and maybe would have been one, but the base was not sold, and only settled for him when it was way too late.
There was Fred, but he turned out to be a stodgy, unmotivated, unimpressive, candidate who had one tiny little gasp in one debate, but it was way too little, way too late.
There was Huckabee, who was unabashedly religious, and who's positions were conservative orthodoxy. But his past record revealed questions. He was absolutely trashed by the base as a complete fraud.
That left two moderates who were actually running as moderates. Rudy, who had a failed strategy and never really got off the ground. And McCain.
So don't tell me conservatism is being shoved out. Centrism won by default. Conservatives failed to field a candidate who had money, motivation, skill, and the trust of the base. That's not McCain's fault. To his credit, he's running pretty much as who he is. He's lucky. I never thought he had a chance.
It's not the death knell of conservatism. It's a primary season we failed to win. McCain is still a better choice than OBAMA, and he's shown a willingness to do business with us, now that he needs us. Thats politics. But, I realize, the base prefers to have OBAMA. So McCain probably will lose. But it won't be his fault. He's being himself, and he won fair and square.