As Mitt Romney’s star keeps rising, a sullen mood envelops conservatives
This entirely predictable reaction comes from the tea parties terrible tykes as they wind down from three years of caterwauling only to realize that their favorite freakazoid candidates can not win the nationals. Yes it’s true TP: it’s still the US, and if you want to have a chance to win you do have to run an adult candidate.
Pundits and political professionals seem to be increasingly confident that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee next year — but conservative skeptics are still not reconciled to that scenario.
Their suspicion of Romney remains strong, for well-known reasons — in short, his shifts of position on social issues and the healthcare reform package he enacted in Massachusetts — and they are insistent that he can yet be vanquished in his bid to become the GOP’s standard-bearer.
If that does not happen, they say, they will reluctantly vote for him over President Obama. But their real focus will shift from the national race to contests closer to home.
“If Romney gets the nomination, I will pay attention to my local races, and he can worry about his own race with the money he’s got,” said Ryan Rhodes, a prominent Tea Party activist in Iowa.
Conservative activists are also determined to hold Romney’s feet to the fire, doing their utmost to ensure he delivers on any promises made to win their support — or at least placate them — during the primacy process.
“That’s your promise? We expect you to do it,” said Steve Lonegan of Americans for Prosperity, the fiscally conservative, Tea Party-aligned group backed by the Koch brothers. “We’re going to be there every day from your swearing in, and the day after.”