Hard choice. Do I dislike strangulation more than drowning?
I dislike Romney the most. He would make the best President, or let's say, the least dangerous, but he is the most intellectually dishonest. The man will pander to the most extreme positions and does not have the courage of his convictions. He's a flip-flopper of the first degree. So much so that I don't know or even have an inkling of what he real positions may be. Was he lying for years and years about supporting a woman's right to abortion? Or is lying now about is position on that issue? Same goes for healthcare insurance reform and so on.
As odious as Santorum is and as deluded as Newt is, I at least expected more honesty from Romney. Therefore he is my least favourite.
He is definitely the last one I would want to have a beer with.
I intensely dislike Santorum, because without even knowing me, he has compared my LTRs to bestiality. On a very cynical note, I wish he'd just win and flame-out in the general election, causing the Teabaggers and other assorted reactionaries to sit at the back of the Republican bus (if not kicked out altogether, like John Birchers in the 60s were). But that's wishful thinking, not reality: the entrenched power elite of the GOP simply won't have it.
Instead, early on, they anointed Rmoney [sic], whom they believed would pass the smell test with enough Independents and cultural moderates to pull it off. Instead, we have a front-runner with zero charisma, and such a gaffe-prone, seizing-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory orientation that he might as well be a democrat
I chose Rmoney [sic] in the poll because, when he loses in November (and he will), it will incite the lunatic fringe of the extreme Republican base to claim (as they did in 2008) that the candidate simply wasn't "conservative" enough. A Rmoney [sic] wipe-out will doom the Republicans to at least eight more years in the wilderness, at which point they may finally disengage from the extremes to which they've (as a party) been reduced.
For the record, in case anyone forgot (or never read my political opinions before), I am a strict Independent: I simply cannot side with either party; I cannot be a Republican but will never be a Democrat. I find each party equally heinous, but for very different reasons.
I vote the candidate, and his/her views on subjects that most effect me: period.