I call losing in November from fielding yet another lack-luster candidate conceding the country to the enemy.
While it is patently untrue that he is not conservative "in any area at all," if it is one thing we know for certain, conservative ideology has not been a vote-getter in presidential elections in decades (and with the exception of Reagan, it has never been in all of modern history). You need to seek something other than conservatism to be successful in a national election.
And for your edit: McCain yes, a handful are better...Romney no, by normal establishment Republican standards, Romney is both as accomplished and as capable a vote getter as what we have in the rest of the field. Cruz and Rubio have potential in the future, Cruz,who I am quite drawn to, will be isolated as a rigid ideologue and crushed by it in the end. Rubio needs age and seasoning, and he needs to stop glazing over and audience's eyes with wonkish speeches, but he has promise too.
It's not 'patently untrue' that he's not conservative in any area. He's been on both sides of every key issue, but before he was running for President as a "Republican" he was on the WRONG side of those issues. You choose to believe what he's saying now. I choose to believe what he said before he wanted to be king.
Every other candidate running has at least one or two conservative ideologies, most a majority, Cruz, all, and they all have character far beyond Trump's.
Those of you who support Trump so vehemently are hanging all your hopes on your
feeling that he is a "WINNER." But he's not even a winner enough to get half of Republican primary voters, and the disdain that decent independents have for him, his sexism, his meanness, and a plethora of other bad qualities, is palpable. He repulses most decent people.
None of us knows who can actually beat Hillary (or Bernie) in the end, but I'm not willing to sacrifice every single moral and conservative principle I have to vote for a man whom a small number of Republicans think is a "Winner."
There's too much at stake.
Like the Republic.