Not surprising to me. Probably more than any other candidate, Romney makes this race a referendum on Obama’s presidency.
We nominate Newt, Santorum, or another clearly conservative candidate, this election becomes about ideology, something we are significantly less likely to win on.
For myself, I still plan on voting for Newt, but I won’t fool myself that there isn’t a trade off here.
Agreed that there is a trade off here. There are a lot of soccer moms that pulled that lever for Obama in 2008 that won’t pull that lever for Newt. They might for Romney.
So then why wouldn’t we nominate Hilary? If beating Obama is the only goal. I think there’s no point in beating Obama if we aren’t going to change his policies. People need to get the “personal” out of this election. I don’t hate Obama, I hate his policies. It’s a truly pathetic retreat if we’re now going to be afraid to run a campaign on our ideology. Sounds like the death of conservatism to me.