[altura]

I estimate maybe 30 freepers who take turns posting anti-Romney stuff and sucking all the joy out of the universe.

There are far more people who disagree with you but don’t want to get caught up in fighting with people who have no interest in reason.

[muawiyah]

You people have to be smoking some strong dope to continue to believe that Romney can get 15% of Democrats to not vote exactly the same way they did in 2008 WHILE trying to campaign without a Conservative candidate.

The Democrats, given the choice of voting for a real Democrat or Democrat pretending to be a Republican will vote for the real thing every single time.

This is competition among broad coalitions ~ not mano y mano stuff. The Democrat factions that are part of the Democrat coalition know who they are and why they vote the way they do. If they are given no rational reason for changing they won't.

Obama had 69 million votes last time to McCain's 59 million votes. Unless the Mittbots can come up with some magic ju-ju somewhere, that's where we're are at ~ in a seriously losing situation!

[Timber Rattler]

I estimate maybe 30 freepers who take turns posting anti-Romney stuff and sucking all the joy out of the universe.

Including the owner of this site?

"I will never vote for an abortionist/homosexualist statist like Romney for the presidency."

[MaxFlint]

I estimate maybe 30 freepers who take turns posting anti-Romney stuff and sucking all the joy out of the universe. There are far more people who disagree with you but don’t want to get caught up in fighting with people who have no interest in reason.

I still think 99% of freepers will vote for Romney. That 99% includes all conservative readers, not just recent posters. Among recent posters as many as 10% might vote third party, write in or leave it blank. Unless all of them live in swing states there's no chance they'll throw the election to Obama, so I wouldn't worry about it.

On the general question of why we're stuck with a less than conservative nominee, there's a myth on FR that the people are conservative, that the country is moving right. It's not that simple. On taxes and spending Republicans are moving right and have been since 2005 or so. Democrats are moving left on taxes but so far they're being blocked by Republicans. On abortion the country is moving slightly to the right. On gay rights we're losing badly. On defense spending things are moving slightly left. On the war on terror the country has turned hard left, which IMHO is why we're stuck with Obama. He was elected to end the war in Iraq.

A conservative who satisfied the social, fiscal and defense conservatives on FR would lose in a landslide.

But I don't have to argue this point with a lot of polling, it's obvious from the most meaningful polls, elections.

If the country is moving to the right why did the country elect a Democratic congress in 2006, and the most liberal Democrat president ever in 2008?

For that matter if the country is moving to the right why did Republican primary voters choose moderates McCain and Romney in 2008 and 2012?