I keep hearing a lot of prominent, outspoken Republicans saying they won't support Mitt Romney for President because he's Too Liberal or Rick Santorum because he's Too Conservative or Sarah Palin because she's Sarah Palin. I don't know what the quiet, rank-and-file G.O.P. folks will do but the prominent politicians and pundits will eventually get behind any nominee because that person will have the single most important quality they seek in a President. He or she will not be Barack Obama. Right now, they have the luxury of pretending they'll withhold their vote and support if the party doesn't give them the candidate they prefer. That will change.
Remember back when it looked like John McCain was going to be the nominee but there was still a chance someone else could slide in there? You had your Rush Limbaughs and your Ann Coulters (two that I specifically recall) saying that if their party didn't nominate someone more right-wing, they'd sit this one out or look at third party options or maybe (gasp!) decide that voting for the Democrat might not be so unthinkable…because it wasn't so different. Total bluff. Some of that went away when McCain selected Palin as his running mate — and that may be why he did such a silly thing. But eventually, every loud Republican who'd opposed McCain said that not only were they fully behind him but that the survival of the United States depended on him getting installed in the Oval Office. It'll be the same way this time.