What conservatives say about Romney now

At the beginning of November, I asked this:

• What will Republicans/conservatives say if Romney wins or almost wins because he went decidedly moderate in the final weeks of the campaign?

Now there's an answer.

"The moderates have had their candidate in 2008 and they had their candidate in 2012. And they got crushed in both elections. Now they tell us we have to keep moderating. If we do that, will we win?" -- Bob Vander Plaats, a Christian conservative leader in Iowa

I should've seen this coming. The conservatives were overjoyed with the gentler Romney when he surged in the polls in October. But then there was immediate amnesia about that change when he didn't win. If he had won, there would have been no acknowledgment that moderation had anything to do with it.

These conservatives really do live in an alternate reality that has two axioms:

• If you're a conservative, you win.
• If you didn't win, you weren't conservative enough.

Beyond the strangeness of their alternate reality, I have another question. How can a sane person choose to live in an alternate reality, willfully closing their eyes and mind? I don't get it.

 Image: fightliberals.com

Note: Not all conservatives are saying this. Many are looking at the demographics and analyzing what campaign messages were counterproductive. Yes, there are some reality-based conservatives too.