When that was going on many of us at FR were supporting a conservative alternative such as Thompson, Gingrich or Santorum. Unfortunately, we were unable to unify around one conservative and win that primary.
However, this time we have a conservative champion in Sen. Cruz. So, I really hope that we don’t make the same mistake the intelligentsia did and nominate, in Donald Trump, a candidate that is only a campaign conservative.
Yes, we were. And Bachman, too. And one by one our “conservative” betters found something about the leading candidate they couldn’t stomach and knocked them off until we were stuck with the great “conservative” icon and Glenn Beck’s favorite “electable” winner, Myth Romney. Same thing happened four years earlier and we were finally stuck with the “electable” winner, John McCain. I swore this year that we would not fall into that trap. We should not go to great lengths to knock off our leading candidates. We may end up with Rubio or Bush or even the mailman’s son as our “electable” winner...
Ten+ years ago the intellectual discourse on FR was stimulating and there were many rational discussions by many very intelligent posters.
Sadly, many of the best have left. The average IQ of present-day FReepers is down 10-20 points.