He was a Republican but did not receive the nomination.
The only conservative minded person who could have won the election was McCain, any vote for someone other then McCain was a vote for Obama. Every political expert said it was the independents who gave Obama the election.
Though I grasp the point that you're driving at, to a scholarly degree, I think it is simply a matter of principles. McCain is a "conservative", or claims to be, but he is also (as you have said over and over) a 25% socialist, the lesser evil. That is too much to waste my voice on. I can not, in good faith, place my vote for a man who has about two more points of principle than G. Dubya.
And mumber two... get this through your head... Ron Paul IS not an independent. He is a member of the Republican National Party, one of the two major parties in the land. Did you know that, TJ? Did you know that the GOP are Republicans, TJ? I voted for a Republican. Get over yourself.
You say that independents indirectly put Obama in the big seat like you've found the freakin' Holy Grail of excuses. "Oh my ***!" and "Eureka!" I can hear it all now. Yet you fail to see that, if McCain were a better choice, a better speaker, a stronger "conservative", and not a RINO; perhaps your boy would be sitting in the White House now. That is not how it ended up, because people will always vote how Hollywood and others tell them to vote.
A vote for Obama, came from those who voted for him. Likewise for McCain. You're just a tired old broken down excuse machine that sounds like Obama when he talks about "inherited problems".
You vote how you want to vote, TJ. That is your right, but don't look down the nose or blame me for all of the country's woes. My state carried McCain, by the way, perhaps you should campaign for the next RINO now to get Florida's support.
I am waiting for your next excuse....