Or is half the country? I mean, okay, let's assume you are dissatisfied with the direction Obama has taken things during the past 3 years. You don't think universal health care should be a concern of government. you think that the big banks should have been allowed to fail (that was a Bush thing, but never mind). You opposed the stimulus, even though roughly half of the dollars went to individuals in the form of tax cuts and rebates.
In short, let's assume you are a principled conservative: government ought to run the post office, the military, and maybe some ports and public safety; otherwise it should just get out of the way. Now, on the Republican side you have Romney the business guy, with a demonstrated ability to manage things (the Olympics), with success in governing one of the most liberal states in the union, and so on. An obviously intelligent, stable, reasonable man. Then you have Santorum, who famously compared gay marriage to marriage between a man and an orangutan (or whatever); who clearly opposes contraception, let alone abortion --nemmine the fact that he has fewer kids than one might expect from a good Catholic. And he's been at the public (and government-aligned nonprofit) trough for a long time, and his policy recommendations include bombing Iran.
Why is this a close choice? I'm not even going to talk about Gingrich, who I think even Republicans sense is dangerously unstable, self-aggrandizing, grandiose, and deluded. Why would you seriously entertain voting for Santorum? I mean, where's the substance? Even his own constituents tossed him out of the US Senate by an embarrassing margin. Is it really true that all we care about is how nice someone is?
Recall the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama primaries. Wasn't there some honest substance there, never mind who you favored? Didn't both of them come across as serious people? And can you really say as much about the Republican alternatives, this time?
Am I crazy? Or is a significant plurality of the American electorate?
Oh.
