[OneWingedShark]

We ended up with McCain as a result of bad luck mostly. If you disagree, tell me which of the following would have been a better choice than John McCain.
Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Alan Keyes, John McCain, and Fred Thompson. As far as I was concerned, it was Fred Thompson and the Seven Dwarves, with Grumpy being the least worst among the Dwarves.

Given that you've ruled out Thompson, I'd have to say that Keyes, Huckabee, and Paul were better choices than McCain, for different reasons though.
Remember that McCain pulled a dead-parrot of a campaign; anyone showing more spirit would have been a gain -- furthermore, McCain has a history of being compromised, um, I mean "compromising"...

• Keyes would have been an interesting choice on the "social" front, as it would be a direct slap in the face to the "R is for Racist" sort of meme that the media likes to play and would have thrown caltrops onto that aspect of Obama's campeign. Plus I like the idea of stripping my opposition of their weapons before they can use them: in this case the "race card." He seems a solid candidate.
• Huckabee, while more a statist WRT drugs, seems "alrightish" as a candidate; he certainly would have fought had he gotten the nomination instead of McCain.
• Ron Paul would have been a very interesting choice (and would have shown that there is a difference between Republican-party and Democrat-party), certainly in hindsight his fiscal positions would have been worlds better than those instituted by Obama. The thing I am most uneasy about is his position on letting States decide on the legality of abortion, I can however see that this route is likely the most realistic way of going about overturning Roe v. Wade (all a State would have to do is claim the USSC overstepped its bounds in the case, destroying the Citizens's due process in their legislative-bodies and, in effect, forcing them to violate the 14th and 5th amendments.); the stance on foreign policy people bring up is supposed to be mitigated by Congress's involvement in the cabinet confirmation; lastly the War on Drugs is wholly contra-constitutional so I support the stance that it should be ended. Again, solid candidate.

But, in the here and now we have (apparently)

Obama v. Romney
...which ammounts to no choice at all, really. They both ascribe to the same horrid policies, and neither is (IMO) an Natural Born Citizen.
(There is enough questionable material on Obama that non-doubt is simply unreasonable. Romney's father was born in Mexico and not a citizen at the time of Romney's birth, precluding Natural Born Citizenship.)

[Mr Rogers]

“Romney’s father was born in Mexico and not a citizen at the time of Romney’s birth, precluding Natural Born Citizenship.”

Romney’s father was a US citizen, born to two American citizens living in Mexico. He was never naturalized. He didn’t need to be.

[W. W. SMITH]

Obama v. Romney the differences;

Romney is a Fabien socialist, Fabians will ease us into the water and slowly turn up the heat until we are all slaves and most won’t notice.

Obama is a revolutionary Marxist Communist, The adherents of that school are willing and eager to finish taking power by lining up and shooting those who refuse to become the states slaves.

With some exceptions all to many politicians over the past one hundred years have been Fabians and we are a long ways down that dark hallway leading to enslavement. They have been turning up the heat for that long and we haven’t noticed!

[DiogenesLamp]

Given that you've ruled out Thompson, I'd have to say that Keyes, Huckabee, and Paul were better choices than McCain, for different reasons though. Remember that McCain pulled a dead-parrot of a campaign; anyone showing more spirit would have been a gain -- furthermore, McCain has a history of being compromised, um, I mean "compromising"...

Keyes is popular among conservatives only. He would have carried no weight in any of the swing states. Same thing with Huckabee, and Ron Paul. Had any of them been the nominee, we would have lost even more badly. I notice you give them better chances than I do, so we might just disagree on that. I can't see any of them doing better. Sarah Palin is the only reason McCain did as well as he did, and it is highly probable that none of the other candidates would have picked her.

Fred Thompson would have won had he gotten into the race earlier and then fought for the nomination instead of taking "i'll serve if you select me" sort of attitude.