What's splitting the Reagan coalition?

What's splitting the Reagan coalition?
How is it that a successful conservative governor who wants to eliminate the IRS, defend the sanctity of life and marriage, appoint judges like Scalia and Roberts, and fight Islamic fascism to the finish is running third in the Republican primaries?

Answer: Since mid-November of 2007, there has been a push by the conservative "new media" to destroy the Republican opponents of Mitt Romney.

The dominant conservative publication The National Review had set the tone for this by endorsing Mitt Romney. Around the same time, Rush Limbaugh was visiting his idol from childhood, William Buckley, the founder of The National Review and considered by many to be the founder of the modern conservative movement.
Within days, Rush Limbaugh and other "conservative" talk show hosts and columnists were excoriating Huckabee.

Instead of offering an honest analysis of Huckabee's political career, they sought to portray him as a hayseed born-againer who loved raising taxes and wanted to bring about an Orwellian Big Brother state.

In the meantime, Romney decided to go negative against Huckabee in Iowa, where Huckabee had grabbed the lead. Romney's attack ads were a blatantly dishonest attempt to portray Huckabee as a crime loving tax-raiser, and, coupled with the constant barrage of misinformation from the talk shows, alienated a core constituent group of social conservatives who correctly recognized the attacks on Huckabee as a slam against themselves and their values.

The rift that is now splitting the conservatives will not be healed during this election process. The Christian right and the FairTax activists now see that they are welcome just as long as they go along with the Republican establishment. To think that someone like Huckabee who represents these groups should be president is considered heresy by the elitists who want to control the nomination process.

The secular elitists who enjoy the posh lifestyle and rubbing elbows with political snobs are embarrassed that grass-roots activists like conservative Christians and FairTaxers are in their tent and are succeeding in driving them out, ensuring that a liberal, be it Romney, McCain, Clinton, or Obama will be in the White House next year.