As an interesting aside, let's look back to 2008, the first really "open" primary for both parties. The DNC exercised tight control on the presented candidates, it was (on the Dem side) always a two person race......Obama and Clinton.......
The Republicans are offered the first real opportunity for a landslide victory in a presidential race in decades, and instead of exercising control, the RNC shows little leadership, and we get eight candidates at the beginning. Almost three primaries in, and we're still squabbling over four, and this lack of party discipline will inevitably give us Mitt.........just like it yielded McCain in 2008, and Dole before that.
The three "libertarians" should have never been allowed in the race to begin with.......with the right Republican candidate it wouldn't matter if any of them launched a third party challenge, the margin of victory would have been too large.
With strong party leadership, we should have gone into Iowa with Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum. Santorum would have likely won Iowa by a larger margin, for lack of Bachman (really only a two-state candidate), Romney would have won New Hampshire, and likely Gingrich in SC.......going into Florida we would have had a real horserace, and the outcome would likely not be resolved until "Super Tuesday" as it should be, with the largest number of states and voters participating in the selection.
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