nt

But this isn’t last year and here we are. What a disaster. Our congress is despised and certainly no match for the Reid Obama team. Our primaries are the punch line to a very very bad joke. Most insulting of all however the GOP is about to nominate a candidate I truly cannot support. For the first time in my adult life I am no longer a reliably republican voter.

Most frustrating for me is that not a single Romney supporter can even state a valid reason for supporting this man. Truly it seems they all just don’t support Newt or Rick or Ron. When forced they try and cherry pick his record but anyone with 5 minutes experience with Google can see through that. His flip flops “don’t bother them” even his outright lies they seem fine with. His background of chop shopping businesses is “creative destruction” and they flat out ignore the Medicare fraud and under funded pensions he left the tax payers on the hook for while making millions personally. When really pressed for a reason to support him they respond with some variation of “he can beat Obama”. How? With what? A failed governing record and a history of business practices that would make Tony Soprano blush?

I guess what were seeing here is the power negative advertising has on the uninformed. Romney has only been able to win in states he has flooded the airwaves with negative ads and driven down participation in. Something tells me Mitt is going to get a lesson on how effective this strategy is again in November when Obama unleashes his billion dollar war chest in all 57 states.

I guess we deserve this after all you reap what you sow….

…just as, as a Perry Posse member, Perry should not have, either.

As I typed yesterday, until/unless you divulge what happened in SC, it will be difficult to capitulate.

unless you want Romney to be the nominee, then Newts is not helping. His ego his to large to likely understand, but he needs pushed out. One man is funding his campaign. He is helping Romney now. The establishment and Romney wants him in now. Its universally excepted Newts serves to help Romney.

that might re-ignite interest from disaffected parties. But if Romney fires himself, he no longer has a campaign and it’s way too late for other candidates to step in.

What a mess.

We’re in the worst of all situations, now, this sort of no-man’s land where we’re guaranteed a bloody war of attrition for weeks on end.

No one’s managed to topple Romney. But Santorum is doing well enough to stay in the race, apparently. I heard some of the pundits last night predict he’ll stay in until June.

Romney is hemorrhaging badly, and really needs to shake up his campaign. But because he’s doing well enough to be ahead in the delegate count, Romney will be loathe to make any changes, because his current strategy is (barely) working in terms of the numbers. I heard Matthew Dowd predict Romney’s staff will deal with the rest of the primary campaign by emailing each other Excel spreadsheets – a perfect symbol of the completely soulless and money-driven campaign Romney relies on to a fault.

I really wish Mitt Romney would wake up one morning and have the epiphany that wanting to complete your father’s unfinished legacy is no reason to want to be President of the United States. The job’s much too important for that. Think of how much better of we’d be if he’d come to that realization. But since that likely won’t happen, we’ve done everything we could on our end to create the perfect campaign environment for Obama.

It is going to be a long eight months to the general election. And I suspect a long four years after out in the wilderness.

As one Russian woman said about her vote:

_____
“Voting yesterday, I felt like I was choosing the least dirty toilet in a crowded train station.”
_____

I wish I knew her address. I send her letter saying I feel your pain.

We’re not quite as bad off as they are, yet. Hopefully we can place a few good men and women in Congress to help null whoever sits in the oval office come November. But given how Obama has been circumventing congress to get stuff he wants, I suspect that will be the rule of thumb going forward, no matter who gets elected.

http://news.yahoo.com/russias-putin-faces-protests-poll-triumph-050653321.html

It’s true we are jumping into a whirlpool of statements thrown out by all the candidates these days. Our heads are getting ready to explode, with trying to figure out who is telling the truth!
Frankly I have the time to research everyone of them and I have surprised myself, with the results. I really started out thinking, that Michell Bachmann was going to be our best hope of getting some fiscal responsibility back in the white house. ( I still favor a lot of her policies), she just didn’t have the money, or backing early on to make her a serious contender though.
Then Newt caught my ear in the early debates, and has been a serious contender ever since. Although Newt has more baggage than the other candidates, he has proven to be more forth coming with opening up his life to the public than anyone else. ( Oh,,, if Obama only did this! He never would have voted into office!). We unfortunately have a lot of billionaires in America that seem to have no morals, and even fewer scruples. They are packing Obama’s war chest for the election of the century.
Getting back to Newt Gingrich, he seems to very methodically, take apart those problems that we all want to be corrected. Even more amazing, Newt has the ability to instantly access from memory, what most of us have to refer to out notes and articles of past!!??
Then he gives a down to earth, common sense, solutions that no other candidate has been able to do to date? So why do we keep focusing on Mitt, and Ron?
Newt may not be as young, and handsome as the other two, but I don’t believe that’s the reason why he hasn’t done as well as the others.
People have paraphrased what others have said about Newt, but not accurately, every time that some one said that Newt wasn’t liked by his fellow congressmen, and women, when he was the speaker of the house. That’s not a bad thing! Although they would have loved us to believe that was the case. Newt stepped on a lot of toes while he was speaker, and paid the price of being rejected for it.
Lets not forget, that it was Newt, that balanced the budget four years as speaker, and that was with a democrat in the white house! Do you think that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hated him for it? You can bet on it!
Newt knows foreign policy, and he knows even better how to fix this economy, I do believe better than anyone else.
Yeah,,, politics are dirty, and Newt knows the history of the big players, and he has proven that he’s not afraid to go after them, and hold them accountable.
That’s the kind of guy I want in the white house, some one that will bring sanity back to our nation, and put us on a solid economic footing once again!

…..if everything I have been reading at Red State over the last year is true and if Romney is the Republican Canidate for President, then we have lost the House, the Lib/Progressives will have a Super Majority in the Senate and Obama will win all 50 states in this Presidential Election. I guess the only thing left to do is to either move to Easter Island or buy a gun, tons of food and wait for the end of America to come about. I remember a time when people in this country were optimistic and happy. I guess Doom and Gloom is the new order of business.

and I can hold my nose in the ballot box just like in 2008 when I was voting for McCain because of Palin. To rally the base, that’s the only way.

If the establishment pushes Romney on us in the primary he had better win in the general or the party is over. The establishment insults us at every turn. The party establishment blocks conservatives at every level. Tthe only reason there is not a separate tea party is fear that Obama will win a second term. If Obama wins there is no reason to take the establishment abuse, conservatives will leave the Republican party and create a new party. It will take time, and the fear that they would not be time to start a new party and win against Obama is the only reason it hasn’t happened already.

So, obviously we’re going to have to fight hard in the battleground states. But Romney’s going to have to spend time and money holding red states like Georgia and Missouri. Missouri in particular is a big problem; McCain won MO by just a handful of votes. Obama will be spending money and using surrogates to turn out Dems in red states where he lost by 5% or less, if only to help spread Romney thin.

It’s hard to swallow this now, but we do need to be donating money to Romney once the primary is over if we want to win.

Romney is establish R, this camp has little experience taking on the far left other then compromise. Those more willing to take arms and fight, from Paul to Santorum are being disenfranchised. This camp is a “must have” premier combat veterans to defeat financial disparities and to stop the propaganda from the left. If the “nastiness” continues and these two camps are divided in the end with Romney wining the delegates with a minority, what a mess this could be.

None of the rest will do. No one else has a better shot of beating Obama either. Just because Santorum is not Romney doesn’t mean he’s any better than Romney. There’s only one small gov conservative left in this race.

EE, you told Perry to drop out to help Newt, he did and endorsed Gingrich in doing so and then you don’t even vote for Newt today.

This election year will not be won with republican money but rather their ideas and clearly articulated counter to the sitting president. So, perhaps a nominee produced from a convention is not beyond the pale. I still believe Speaker Gingrich will serve our hopes best in this scenario. If that path is to be successful, Palin-Perry and the other supporters are required to stump for him in TX, KS and the south.

That is my view of our Primary here.

In 1968 Nixon rose from the ashes by marketing himself as The New Nixon.

Tide and Cheer the detergents do this every so often.

If Romney wants any chance of “firing” up the base, he must fire himself first.

Symbolically.

Romney must immolate himself in the fires of a Conservative Inquisition: the old Romney, flip-flopping, HealthCare-lite, sort of pro-abortion , Rockefeller RINO Romney must be burned at the stake, completely repudiated, a acontract signed in blood. (symbolically, although the real thing would make a statement.)

Romney must then unequivocally repudiate BIG BRObamaCare, massive spending and deficits, and promise for the first time actually to reduce the bureaucracy in Washington, to reduce government interference in American lives, and then to prove he is not after power, promise to resign after one term, like Rutherford B. Hayes.

Yes, I know, we all have our fantasies!

Does anyone imagine that folks give a hoot whether the individual mandate is a state or a federal one? When that penalty tax kicks in and lower income folks see money set aside for groceries or utilities confiscated by the government, it won’t matter what uniform the thief wears.

I have real concerns about a Romney nomination. He is a decent man, generous, sociable, biz savvy, but he is shakable–not a quality I seek in the president. Go back and look at the expression on his face during the debate when Rick Perry kept interrupting him. That look is panic.

He is the wrong man for this job.

Romney’s plastic and boring to me; untrustworthy and not conservative enough to others.

He’d be far, far better than Obama, and his VP could could carry the conservative banner down the road. Could.

Moaning and groaning over Romney, if he gets the nomination, will be cathartic to the Right and hand a victory to the Left.

Santorum had the overwhelming support of the party base and conservative leaders across America. It really left me cold to find that he was not even included on our primary ballot here in Virginia. If RINO Romney gets the nomination as it seems is just about inevitable now for sure, the nation is at great risk of being destroyed the rest of the way by another 4 years under Obama which we could not afford to see happen. Something went very wrong this electoral cycle and my party had better learn to stop going suicidal by getting RINO after RINO nominated to our ticket for the presidency! Does anyone REALLY believe that Romney of Obamacare L:ite fame is going to do a THING to overturn Obamacare? How naive, since his Massachusetts health care plan was the precursor and model for that disaster in the first place!

Obama’s the most dishonest president. His base even hate him for it. It’s a character flaw. A feature of who he is. He’s a con man.

Romney is fundamentally honest. True he flips and flops. But he doesn’t set out to deceive in major ways, as Obama does. He’s a pol but not a con man.

It’s too bad Perry wasn’t able to stay in the race. He was the best nominee we had. In his absence, Santorum was the next most reliably conservative candidate. With so many conservative leaders turning out to CPAC to support Santorum and then the endorsements given to him by Limbaugh and Dr. Dobson on top of that, I have to wonder how this nomination process ever got so rigged to make Romney the nominee of our party. It doesn’t pass the smell test.

Every candidate has done their best. They have created the best organization they could, the best fund raising effort, the best ads, the best management of talent and the best spending available to them. They have all had their chance. The primary is what it is and my guy bowed out some time ago. They all have there attributes and their flaws But know this. The next president will have 2 SCOTUS appointments that will impact America for the next 50 to 100 years. It is time for all of us to accept the process and the collective wisdom of the primary process. If Romney wins then I am a Romney guy. There is NO wisdom in whipping a dead horse. If your guy is out of this race then you will need to work all the harder and suffer much to prevent Obama from giving us a 6/4 liberal court. We can even take the Senate and just think back on how many times we have wondered why our side let this or that SCOTUS nominee through to the court. If Kagen and Sota do not scare you enough then you are part of the problem. Once this is over no more talk of holding your nose. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, not the shooting kind but a war for the soul of America and even if you do not like your general you had better fight like hell. We are fighting for the next generation now. For all of us who have grand kids we know what to do.

When I read the comments, I think to myself this was the same stuff they were saying about Regan way back when. The fact is that people voted for Romney and he won. No one held a gun to their heads to vote for him. You may not like it but a majority of people voted for Romney. Santorum and Gingrich have to convince people to vote for them and they have not been able to do that.

I refuse to give up the fight….Santorum or Gingrich or Paul does not have to beat Romney outright…They just need to combine for enough delegates to prevent Romney from getting 1100 +/- delegates so we’ll have another shot at it at the convention….

After 2008, I refuse to believe we’re stuck with another loser against an eminently beatable President who makes Jimmy freaking Carter look like a genius in comparison.

Damn the establishment for putting us in this position…Damn them all

Why not say what it appears Romney’s real problem is. He wins large urban areas. I don’t understand why the news media breaks down every other demographic but doesn’t address urban versus suburban/rural when it comes to his support. Those urban counties are going to vote Democrat in the general election.

As of right now:

Romney: 368
Non-Romney: 312

Romney is heading for a razor-thin delegate majority.

Up until the voting started, the contest was proceeding in a fairly positive, respectful, issue-based manner. The Republicans were making themselves look good. Every candidate got a chance, some rose and fell, and by the time Iowa drew near, voters had begun to settle on Newt Gingrich. He had run a positive campaign and positioned himself as a statesman, strictly avoiding attacking the other candidates, while displaying a strong grasp of the issues. He was way ahead of Romney in the national polls, and was tied with Obama head to head.

Then the Romney campaign and the GOP elite decided to destroy the party. Romney did it to win, the GOP elite did it to kill of the Tea Party and re-establish their dominance. And they’ve succeeded. Romney is winning, while being increasingly loathed by conservatives and independents alike. The GOP elite have their control back, over a shrinking and dying party with a base that’s been carpet-bombed into disgust and apathy.

I was sorry to see OK going for Santorum. Have nothing against him but I wanted Newt. I also think Newt is the best one to voice the problems facing America. All of us recognize the problems with the economy but Newt is the only one seeing the considerable danger from the Liberal Federal Judges. Like he said, it won’t matter who is President if we don’t change the Judges or get rid of them. They give the Left everything they want. America is filled to the brim with people and Organizations working to change America, to get rid of the Constitution and to destroy our Freedoms. If we don’t have a President that understands all the dangers facing America then it won’t matter our much our economy improves.
Newt is the only one speaking to all the dangers. The Republican Leaders do not want Newt because he will shake up BOTH Parties and let the Nuts fall out. When ANY Party seeks to choose the Candidate for the People, it’s a Party that has grown arrogant and dismissive of the people. The Republican Party committed that offense when they pushed McCain and now Romney. I don’t like being led or dismissed.

What exactly is Romney going to point at to indicate that he is the answer for what ails this nation? The money he got from the taxpayer (fed funds) for the olympics, romneycare, appointment of liberal judges, or perhaps his support of planned parenthood?

He is not the answer.

1) Learn what a Jacksonian is. Where their habitats typically are, what they believe in. Watching him reach out to rural, lower-income conservatives or Reagan Democrats is like watching the NYT Magazine paly a game of “Conservatives In The Mist.”

2) He needs to mend fences with “Nuke” and get him onboard as a Veep. This will take several weeks of butt-kissing and ingratiating. Use Newt’s ego as a fulcrum. Make the man feel wanted and very important. Praise his vast intellect and reading list.

Do that, and continue spending Santorum into the dirt, and Romney could emerge in charge of a relatively united GOP.

Romney is a Moonbat !

(See www.boortz.com – search MOONBAT.)

Romney is a Moon bat of the Jerry Brown, Govenor of California, order.

Romney was Govenor of TAX-UH -Chusetts and that is too Liberal.

Romney has been continuously running for President for more that 6 years and STILL can not find a majority in the primary voting.

We have seen the current President default on his campaign promises.

We have seen the current President inherit a bad economy and deficit and inflict more debt on this country than all other Presidents … combined.

We have seen the current President bow before the Saudi King.

We have seen the current President apologize to radical nations for policies of the United States.

We have heard the current President say that our economy should suffer as bad as European economies.

We have read books, written by the current President, that proclaimed a devotion to Marxism and Fascism..

And on & on & on & on …. and we still haven’t awakened to see that politics and life as we have know them are under attack.

Apparently, as a nation. the Citizens of the United States do not believe empirical evidence when it is laid bare before us.

Now comes Romney … telling us that he can be all things to all people.
Now comes the RNC …telling us that Romney is the answer!

NO!

Once elected a president is in office for the duration.

Romney is a Moonbat!

No!

If a President goes completely nuts, we can only standby, slap our heads and say, “Why didn’t we see that?

Romney is a Moonbat!

Let’s stop the insanity!

There is no good argument for electing Romney.

Romney is a Moonbat!

I will not be supporting RINO’s again. Not now, Not ever. No Mitt. No How. No Way.

Mitt Romney was well down in Ohio for the last few weeks and only came back to parity in literally last few days. People were saying that if he manages to come back from that deficit he will be all set. Now he came back and won, but the goal posts have been moved, and people are saying he didn’t win by enough.

The people who are making these arguments think that no one will notice. I hope Newt stays in to spite them.

Erick, Romney won Michigan by 8%. The 3% margin was only because Santorum, Michael Moore, and Obama got enough Democrats to vote to swell their numbers to 1 out of 9. Without Democrats, Romney wins by an impressive 8%.

Romney beat Santorum in Ohio with Catholics roughly 40-32% and tied with conservatives. I don’t see where you say he doesn’t resonate with them. As for blue collars, they’ll vote for the nominee over Obama. There’s only one group within the GOP base Romney can’t win. We know who they are.

No candidate is perfect. You and I are both across the board conservatives on economics, defense, values, illegals/anti amnesty, and pro ptivate sector jobs creation. The difference is I live in Massachusetts, saw how Romney governed versus how he campaigned in 2002, and trust he’s a reliable conservative. You don’t.

and causing a brokered convention?

“We know who they are.”

I’m fairly certain that conservatives are having difficulty swallowing this bitter pill. Did not the Bush clan fix us of our willing acceptance of moderates?

I still think the winning gambit for Romney is make Rand Paul the VP nominee.

He pulls in the Ron Paul votes (or at least keeps Ron Paul from openly running for office).

He pulls in Tea Partiers since Rand is one of them.

Is the only argument of Romney’s viability is that a prolonged primary will assure another 4 years of Obama?

I find it hard to believe that he is the best candidate. It is harder to argue that he’s sufficient to beat someone that does not differ significantly with the president whether comparing policy or integrity.

I agree with earlier statements that Romney as the nominee is a disaster regardless of possibility of a convention determination.

Thank you, Mitt Romney, for ensuring four more years of Barack Obama.

The die is cast. There will not be enough of America left to recover after this loss. We will certainly have to secede or revolt and establish a new nation in order to obtain individual liberty hereafter.

I want to punch whoever started the canard about Romney’s electability. Nearly anybody would have been better.

but has not completely closed the deal. I believe is main problem is his message. Romney seems to be a bit of a robot, feed the data in and he spits it out. That is fine and dandy if the data going in is good. Unfortunately for Romney the data going in is terrible and has won him no love or super committed support from nearly anyone. He has been completely reduced to blistering negative attacks to push back opponents and eek out wins because he inspires no passion.

As soon as he has secured the nomination he needs to fire his entire message team and bring some people in who know how to connect with real people, and not just on a gutteral negative level. Or at least he needs to bring in new people and layer those he already has.

I think Romney and his team have done an incredible job on opposition research, but spent little time putting together a compelling reason to vote for Romney. Since he doesn’t really stand for anything he has tried to stand for everything. Still don’t know what the compelling reason to vote for him is.

As they said on SNL this weekend….he is the candidate of eeeeh…I guess.

TN, where i am born and raised, voted for an obnoxious, angry, big labour take- one- for the team catholic last night.

for a lot of people here, sadly, and i know them personally, the mormon thing is something they just can;t get passed. So i get that mitt didn’t win here.

Its stupid, but i get it.

What i don’t get is why my state chose santorum over newt.

anyway, erick is right. this is a mess.

neither newt or santorum can win at this point…based on delegates. Its proportional so even when rick ekes out a win romney gets as many delegates and santorum gains no ground.

but they can stay in and blow it for the party, which is what they are going to do.

Romney is doing very well in urban/suburban areas, and poorly in rural areas this primary season. Urban/suburban swing voters were very important to Obama in 2008. If some of those votes are taken from Obama, does anyone think he will make up for it with gains in rural areas? I sure don’t. In fact, he’ll probably do worse in rural areas this time because 2008 was an especially rotten election for the GOP, with voter anger toward Bush and a crashing economy.

Only two candidates running for president have chosen a path of “government knows best” and that government should be able to dictate the actions of the people…. Obama with ObamaCare and Romney with RomneyCare.

Willard will NOT CUT SPENDING…. He is a big government politician just like Obama. All the insider republicans want is control of the chairmanships so THEY can determine where the dollars will go.

Willard will NOT REPEAL OBAMA/ROMNEYCARE. As stated plainly by two of his underlings.

A candidate that is DIFFERENT from Obama would have a chance. Romney is simply a different flavor of Obama. The anti-Obama enthusiasm will be lost on him as a candidate. We will have turnout worse than the RINO that beat him last time. Not much of a campaign platform to be just a little less of a socialist, big government candidate.

Romney is very likely to cause not only 4 more years of Obama, but NOT gaining control over the senate and loss of the house because of miserable turnout.

CC

While the media outlets would prefer a horse race for easily manufactured news, its over mathematically. Santorum is vetted for 2020, gets own show on fox or EWTN. Gingrich sells more books and increases speaking fee. Palin sees her fifteen minutes in the spotlight end. Romney wins in landslide with Republicans taking the Senate. Soul of America saved.

“We’re taking this victory all the way to the White House.”

Anyone want to tell me what this actually means. It’s true Mitt. Flowery language that’s meaningless.

A little to much pessimism here. It may be that Mortimer Snerd could whip his dead ass. His talks are repulsive, he opens his mouth and his popularity continues to go down. Yet I see signs all over the place from our side that all is lost. No answer for that but that Republicans, conservatives and Normal People are buying into the crap the media is pushing, and by a process of osmosis the weak minded, media infected, are falling for it.

We as a party should focus on our Senate and House seats in jeopardy more intensely now that we know who will get the nomination.

I really doubt Mitt Romney can mount a successful campaign against Obama.

We have to make a push for a bigger majority!

What would be telling on many levels would be a poll as to whether this primary should go to the convention for determination.

I think the support for Romney and Santorum is weaker than most would admit.

A poll would make it clear one way or the other.

Should the nominee be determined in the August convention?

Is Romney as the nominee a good thing for our nation and party? I would think that if many believe that the convention is preferable than the answer is “no”.

in the closing paragraphs of this post is the very definition of putting lipstick on a pig.

in the closing paragraphs of this post is the very definition of putting lipstick on a pig.

Brother Paul has already made a strategic alliance with Romney. Half of Gingrich’s money is actually from Romney’s camp. Newt knows exactly what he’s doing. His dilution of the bumpkin vote to assist Romney is noble considering the vicious attacks Romney made on him early in the campaign.

With the tone change towards his fellow republicans, the message has been sent. “No hard feelings boys, but the professionals can take it from here.” The Romney folks were even telling the networks to update the data. The amateurs have done well polishing Romney. He’s ready now to send a clear message and contrast himself “with him who must not be named”

Which is what we’ve been saying for weeks. Newt needs to get out while we can still save the party from Romney. Otherwise it deserves to go the way of the Whigs.

I believe in Newt Gingrich but that doesn’t preclude there are valid reasons to vote for the other candidates.

Did you vote issues, past accomplishments, viable vision for the future, the not-Romney? This is a weird election cycle, perhaps more psychological than principled. The media and the politicos haven’t made it any easier.

Why did Palin wait so long to endorse? Does she hope for a brokered convention?

Denying Santo the win in Ohio.

My guy didn’t win, but I’m ready to move on and fight Obama.

No one here can honestly say they believe Romney is not going to get the nomination, the delegate math is impossible. At best, you MIGHT get Santorum on the ticket, but even then, is that a real victory? I think Romney would put a Rubio or McDonnell in a heartbeat. We’d get a better conservative that wouldn’t be a drag on the ticket. Why limp this along for the 6 months just to put a Santorum as VP?

A bloody battle to the Convention doesn’t benefit anyone but Obama and the Democrats in November. It’s especially stupid when you consider the candidates we’re fighting over.

I started writing on RedState to support Newt, but now I can see that he is letting his own self-interest and ego come before the Republican Party.

Rick Perry did the honorable thing so Newt could win, now that we have had enough states vote it’s clear that a majority of conservatives think Rick Santorum has a better chance against not only Obama but also Mitt Romney.

Isn’t Rick Santorum offering Newt something if he steps down? Something like a very important role in the administration or even VP. He has to be I would think, and if not, Newt call him and ask for what it is you want in exchange for your endorsement.

Make him an offer he can’t refuse.

After Romney has won Ohio and 5 other states, it is obvious to anyone who has paid slight attention to politics that he is going to be the nominee. Santorum and Gingrich have no real chance of getting enough delegates. What are the reasons for them to stay in the race? To feed their egos? To “make a point” just like Ron Paul is doing?

The longer the race drags out, the more damage we are going to do to the eventual nominee. I repeat, the goal is to beat Obama, not to find the perfect candidate that will uphold ALL the conservative ideologies and make EVERYONE happy. For those who are still not seeing the light, please consider it again carefully what your priorities are. I hope you will then realize that putting all our supports behind Romney to fight Obama in November is the best strategy.