Freepers hate Mitt. For now

I still think Romney will be the candidate. His ability to say whatever people want to hear is second to none, and history shows this makes for a very successful candidate.

But he'll have to get past the Freepers first:

Jim Robinson, the founder of the site, started the 500 post thread and noted who he was looking at that wasn't Romney:

Here are three that I’d like to take a closer at:

Haley Barbour
Sarah Palin
Mark Sanford

As for Mitt himself, Jim Robinson has the diagnosis:

He’s still bragging about his socialist RomneyCare. He’s Kennedy’s lap dog.

This is a nontrivial bit here. Of course, two of those names won't matter cause it's all about Sarah really:

wk4bush2004 sets up the main theme of the thread.

“He’s gotta make it through the primaries first.”

Exactly, which he won’t.When Sarah enters the primaries, she’s gonna blow all of the other candidates away. I think, besides the Democrats, even the GOP leadership is scared to death of her.

Tribune7 stays strong with the anti-Romney message, and adds in some populism that is sure to go nowhere:

I would have probably held my nose and voted for Mitt last Nov. but at this point there is absolutely no point in working with people like him. I'd rather look to build bridges with the Blacks and Mexicans -- who might be pro-life and take God seriously -- rather than the welfare-for-Wall-Street crowd that will pat us on the head hoping we stay in our place.

reaganaut takes a more bigoted view:

I hate Romney because he is not a CONSERVATIVE, I do not TRUST Romney because he is Mormon. I know too much.

NYC Republican, though makes the argument they'll all be making come 2012:

With all due respect... In '12 it will be a vote for Huss or against Huss... Plain and simple...

Romney certainly isn't my first choice, but if he's the last one standing and is our nominee... I'd gladly choose him over 4 more years of disaster... 4 years is an awfully long time, especially considering the real likelihood that Huss' VP at the time (won't be Biden), or Michelle, could follow this disaster

At the same time... Romney's the ONLY major player the past several months that's taking on the Clintons and Huss... The only one speaking for conservatives... I don't see anyone else doing that on the national stage... Honestly, even if I'm cheering what he says, rather than what he's done in the past, I see nothing wrong with it... Frankly, I don't care that he ran as a lib several years ago, in the most liberal state... If he runs as a solid, unabashed conservative and wins... I'll be behind him.

Free Republic is getting more and more intolerant these days, but when the chips are down, these guys are the base of the GOP. Where else to they have to go? I'm pretty sure that if Romney is the candidate they will come around based on some pretext.

Maybe Romney should choose Palin as his Veep. Then the freepers can all say they voted for Sarah. Again.