Do they come around later?
There is an answer i hear from many of the strongest Mitt supporters that when they are faced with the total rejection of Mitt by the conservatives, that they p*** it off with the answer, "The conservatives will come around later and support Mitt"
The problem with this answer?
it's wrong.
The past elections where I have heard this answer given to justify the lack of outreach to conservatives have more than proved to me that "Conservatives just don't come around"
I first listened to the answer "The conservatives will come around" when a supporter of Bob Dole was defending the poor relationship that Dole had with the conservatives within his own Party compared to a guy like Pat Buchanan.
The idea that the people that supported Bob Dole had was that in the general election and when faced with a choice of Bob Dole or Bill Clinton, that all the conservatives will race to vote for Dole.
They took it for granted that conservatives will overlook the fact that Bob Dole was never their choice.
They were wrong.
Its the same later in another election when McCain and his supporters took it for granted that conservatives would overlook the distance there was between them and McCain, and come out to vote for him over Obama.
They were wrong again then too.
The track record over the last few elections has given us a very good idea what to expect.
George Bush jr was supported strongly by conservatives, and did come out in the type of numbers that mattered and swung the election for Bush's win.
Bob Dole never had the support of conservatives in the primary's, he won the nomination because the greater number of names on the ballot that were good conservatives split the vote.
And because there was no close relationship between conservatives and Bob Dole, they never came out to vote for him, and he lost.
McCain had a long history of stabbing every conservative issue in the back during his time in Congress.
So when the supporters of McCain were saying to the media "The conservatives will come around to support McCain" they were just dreaming
The truth is, that the past elections have shown us clearly that unless the republican candidate has strong support from the Republican conservatives, they will lose in the general election.
Conservatives just dont come out in the numbers needed to swing to them the victory.
and without the conservatives in your corner, you dont have a chance of winning anything.
So the answer to my opening question then is?
"No, they do not come around later"