Politicians make appearances all the time with people they disagree with or even dislike on a personal level. Something like McCain’s shift on immigration (although he still is for campaign finance and denounced the Citizens United decision a while back) is a stronger example.
Which Romney are you talking about? I used to think he was a moderate, because of Mass., but it appears he just acted that way to win the election. Then he turned conservative in the primaries. His private views, and his views after the election is over and it doesn’t matter anymore, are a better indicator, and he is nothing like a moderate.
More asshole wing if you ask me.
Rubio has said that science teaches the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and’his faith’ is not inconsistent with that.
Whether that kills him in the 2016 primaries remains to be seen.
I’m more pessimistic. The GOP doesn’t need to do anything significant to change, other than simply to have the Dems run a tepid nomination like Dukakis or Mondale. The famous SNL debate skit of Lovits (Dukakis) saying “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy” is dead on accurate.
The two most conceivably rational, economically credible, and intellectually appealing Republicans candidates in recent memory that could compete on platform merits alone, HW Bush and Bob Dole, were trounced by Clinton.
The Republican base is far enough into reliance on the fringe fundamentalists that they will never succeed on the merits of their platform. Unfortunately, it only takes a Democrat that appears slightly out of touch with the mainstream or not enough stage presence “it factor” to push enough of the bell-curve over to give the Republicans the presidency.
…one more follow-on thought…
The only election that had what I’d consider to be two charismatically and telegenically equivalent candidates that I recall in my lifetime (50 years) has been Bush/Gore. This would be the best example of a control study data point for where the aggregate of US political opinion lied, and Gore would have been the winner if not for the spoiler-factor of Nader.
Therefore, the Dems need to merely run the equivalent of Gore or higher, and they are pretty much guaranteed a win. QED.