Newt's Out...Now What?

Ok...it's not exactly news. Newt announced he'd be dropping out over a week ago. He just had to have time to get his ducks in a row to do it (translation...thank volunteers, dispatch employees, etc). However, it means, unless you're so delusional that you believe Ron Paul has a snowball's chance in July (which he never had) that Romney is officially our nominee.

Yet there is going to be a backlash from conservatives who, like me, genuinely wanted one of the more conservative candidates in the race to win instead. These individuals have a choice. They can join me in the realistic camp and recognize that whatever Romney's imperfections are, he's still better than Obama...OR...they can clamor for a third party candidate, split the vote and pretty much guarantee Obama a second term. (Does ANYONE other than me remember the Election of 1992? 19 states including California, Georgia, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee would have likely swung to Bush and won him re-election if it wasn't for Ross Perot.)

Additionally, what this misses out on is the opportunity to push Romney to the right. He needs to court conservatives, friends. He needs us...and irregardless of what he is presenting now, he knows it. Instead of replacing Romney, let's get Mitt to campaign and govern according to his personal principles (rather than how he ended up having to govern in Massachusetts).

Newt would've been a great conservative candidate. Unfortunately, we can't have our wat in that. So our choice is to either a) back Romney, push him to the right and beat Obama or b) find a 3rd party candidate, enjoy our principled loss, and deal with four more years of Obama. I think the choice is clear. I hope you do too.