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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I agree with a lot of this.  I'm also disappointed in Obama and would have thought seriously about voting for Mitt Romney, moderate Republican Governor of Massachusetts.  Not sure where they stashed that guy, but he's nowhere to be found.  I expect that candidate would have at a minumum given Obama a run for his money, and potentially won the election handily.  (Of course, he's have never made it past the Iowa caucuses, but that's a different discussion.)  This version, Romney 2.0 (or more accurately, Romney 272.0, given how many times he's changed his positions), is not going to get my vote.  The prospect of a Republican president who has not show the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the extreme elements in his own party, combined with an increasingly conservative (and militant) GOP-controlled House, the possibility of a GOP controlled Senate, and the age of many of the Supreme Court justices makes this decision easly (for me, anyway) when you distill it down to those points.  [/quote]

No, unfortunately Romney is caught between a rock and a hard place.  The Republican party has shifted so far right that we moderate Republicans are not considered not just moderate Democrats, but liberals.   Romney's problem is that if he sticks with his moderate conservative message, he will alienate his hard-core Republican base.  And unfortunately, hard-core Republicans will abstain from voting as a general protect rather than vote for a moderate or liberal.  So he has no change to beat Obama with a moderate Republican stance.  He will lose more votes from the Conservative right than he will gain from the moderates and the independents.  Conversely, if it goes too far right, he also has no chance because the moderates and the independents will bail and likely, they will actively vote FOR his opponent, Obama.  So, he is stuck in a conservative stance, flip-flopping his message to appeal to the audience of the moment and hope that he doesn't lose too many votes from both sides over the very wishy-washy message that changes daily.

Basically, the Tea Party is killing the Republican party from the inside.  They are making it so that *NO* republican can win on the national stage, only on the local/state level where there are enough like-minded conservatives to force the candidate through.  However, if the Conservative right does not make some change on the national level, it will likely be a long time before another Republican sees the White House.[/quote]

I’m the PP to whom you responded, and I agree with much of what you said.  To get the nomination, any GOP candidate had to run to the right, and in most elections, I also agree that the base would stay home if they sense disloyalty.  But this is not most elections.  I don’t care how much Romney moderates his positions, I just don’t believe the base would pass up a chance to vote against Obama (not for Romney, but against Obama).  In other situations, with other incumbents, sure – but the people of whom we are speaking won’t pass up a chance to vote against a Kenyan socialist Muslim who is a long-time member of a Christian church whose minister preached anti-American values (wait, how does that work again?  never mind . . . ) and who is bent on destroying America and hates the very notion of the American Dream (although he is living it) and American Exceptionalism (although he is the embodiment of it).

Of course, there’s likely extensive polling on this point, and as I said, I agree that the base would stay home in most situations, so I’m likely wrong.  If that’s the case, however, it just befuddles me to think that the far right-wing, which is mile and miles more organized and effective than the left wing in this country, has such a huge collective blind spot.  They should read their Voltaire – perfect is the enemy of the good.

Actually, Voltaire is a bit of a stretch - they should just read SOMETHING.  But I digress.

And as you said, if the GOP continues tacking to the right, combined with changing demographics and an increase of the Hispanic population in Florida, Arizona and (gulp) Texas, the GOP will become a regional party incapable of electing a national candidate.
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