If Romney loses the Republican party will blow up [View all]

If Romney loses, the Big Money boys will have thrown away a golden opportunity to frag the tea-party by letting somebody like Gingrich have the nomination.

Instead, with Romney as the nominee a loss will drive the Republican Party even further right because even though Romney is running on the wing-nut set of positions nobody believes he's a "real" conservative. He was positioned as the moderate candidate in the primaries. He will always, to the base, be the moderate candidate. He's Nelson Rockefeller, not Goldwater. He's Ford, not Reagan.

So if he loses it will be a national repudiation of nut-right positions that is read by the nut-right (aka Republican Party base) as a repudiation of moderation. They will be emboldened, not chastened.