You are absolutely right, GreyFriar, that Romney built his org. for seven years..so raised way more money, made connections and worked harder and longer than the others.
But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t other good candidates...just that they didn’t start conniving early like Mittens did.
There were a few Conservatives in the bunch. Unfortunately Romney, the last man standing, is not one of them.
Mary, What you call “conniving,” I call planning and preparation. Yes, there were good conservative candidates but none of them made a decision until about 2 years ago. Many of the conservatives stated how they supported Reagan’s positions, etc; however none of them learned this lesson: Decide that you need to run for president because you have the conservative beliefs and ideas that this nation is centered on and needs to have in a leader. Reagan decided early that he should run for the presidency and he began with the nominating speech for Goldwater. And after Goldwater was defeated, Reagan began his planning and preparation. It took a decade to lay the foundation for his run for the presidency, and included loosing the nomination to Gerald Ford. But he stuck to his goal. He realized that it was going to be a long game, and he played it.