I think the party uses manipulators here at FR too.
They don’t post for years and suddenly show up and spend a couple of months steady stream posting attacks on other candidates only to disappear after their final post calling to unite.
I don’t know about “the party” using “manipulators”... I’m sure there are all kinds of posters here on FR. This is forum is large, public and very well known.
I do know that there were many recognizable long-term conservative posters here in FR who said some very mean and nasty and un-called for things about Rick Perry, just to take one example.
I’m not saying Rick Perry should have been the nominee or could have been the nominee. I’m not saying we should have united behind Rick Perry. I am using him as an example of the meanness, nastiness and shameless behavior by some well-known conservatives here on FR who attacked him viciously as if he was the enemy. It’s an example, in my opinion, of what went on in the conservative movement on a broader scale in 2010.
It was very, very bad.
And now we have reaped Romney and we’re whining, b*tching and moaning about the “establishment”. The “establishment” acted like adults. The “conservatives” (many of them), acted like a bunch of petulant children.
And one of our so-called leaders, acted like she had better things to do than give us all a helping hand.
For shame.
You greatly exaggerate the importance of FR.
There has been a lot of paranoid thinking around this forum. I think things happened just as we all saw that they did. Mitt was experienced in running for President and was well-organized, hard-working, well-funded, and determined. He started early and kept at it. He learned from his mistakes and competed everywhere.
None of the others had all of these attributes and Mitt just beat them. The sniping between candidates was just what naturally occurs as partisans of any one pointed out the shortcomings of the others.