Conservatives want so badly to beat Obama that they're forcing themselves to push hard for a man many of them neither like nor trust, all the while trying to box him into a right-wing agenda he'll never implement. Hence the insistence that he embrace Paul Ryan's budget and even put the Wisconsin Republican on the ticket. Hence the reminders from neoconservatives about what they will and won't tolerate. Hence the nervous outrage of talk radio types as the Romney campaign suggests that maybe his health care record from Massachusetts is an asset, not a liability.

They've got a bad feeling they're unwilling to fully reveal.

He was only able to win the GOP primary because he second-guessed every instinct he had that proved unacceptable to conservatives. Keeping the base happy while winning independents is going to prove difficult, because neither group is inclined to give the benefit of any doubt to the former Massachusetts governor, so his has little ability to fudge. And there's no reason to think that if Romney confidently said what he really believes he'd be better positioned.

The truth is that, if elected, Romney is extremely unlikely to sign the Ryan budget, or to completely repeal Obamacare, or to act in accordance with his tough rhetoric on immigration, or to significantly reduce the deficit. Conservatives have persuaded themselves out of desperation that a man they know to be unreliable won't have any choice but to advance their agenda in the White House, which makes about as much sense as assuming that a Ryan vice-presidency would influence Romney in a conservative direction rather than co-opting Ryan.

Says Erick Erickson, "Conservatives have put aside their distrust of Romney on this issue in the name of beating Barack Obama. They thought he and his campaign team had gotten the message and the hints. Consider the scab picked, the wound opened, and the distrust trickling out again." This from a man who is going to vote for Romney regardless, and who is needed by Romney far more now than on the hypothetical day after an election that puts him in the White House.

I'm sure Romney would be marginally better, by Erickson's way of thinking, than President Obama, but given the conservative movement's avowed (as opposed to revealed) preferences, it was in a no win situation in this election as soon as it decided that its nominee would be chosen among Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney. Partisans, especially of the professional variety, are nevertheless incapable of acknowledging when they're screwed.

Who'd rally the base if they did? There will be a lot of feigned confidence between now and election day.

