Mitt Romney will win the Florida primary. Independents can't vote for McCain and Giuliani is sinking like a rock. Huckabee doesn't have enough evangelicals in the sunshine state to make him a factor. That leaves Mitt. The race is between him and McCain, and since the former governor is more popular with real Republicans there is a better chance that Romney will end up the nominee.

But can Romney survive the general election? It's almost a guarantee that the Democratic nominee is going to be Hillary, and conservatives have to ask themselves that most important question: is Romney a s trong enough candidate to keep the evil queen of socialism out of the White House? Hillary will be brutal to whoever the GOP nominee is, and while it's unlikely that Romney has too many skeletons in the closet, Hillary and her thugs will use anything they can get their hands on.

First there is Romney's record as governor. If the other Republican candidates attack Romney as a flip flopper what do you think Hillary is going to do? First the only area where Romney has changed his mind is abortion. And he went from the wrong side to the right side. Flip Flopping is constantly changing your positions to meet the approval of the voters. John Kerry voting for the 78 billion dollars before he voted against it is a good example, or anything John Edwards has ever said on the campaign trail. Romney was able to win the governorship of the most liberal state in America and govern it in a fairly effective conservative way. He took a state with a deficit and brought it into a surplus. That is something America could use today when Washington has abandoned all pretense of fiscal responsiblity. Romney has been strong on illegal immigration, even as governor he ordered state troopers to go after illegals, something his Democratic successor immediately overturned. The other GOP candidates have been weak on the issue. Hillary will attack Romney as xenophobic.

Romney fought gay marriage when the state supreme court ordered it imposed on the state. While Hillary won't come out for gay marriage, she'll twist herself like a contortionist saying she's against gay marriage but favors civil unions, she'll blast Romney as a homophobe. Not that any of this will be new. Ever GOP nominee has had to suffer the slanders of the media and the Democratic party. They've been accused of racism, warmongering, wanting to starve children, throwing the elderly into the streets, and every other crime imaginable.

Romney isn't really weak on policy. In every way he's the strongest GOP candidate, (and the worst GOP candidate is preferable to Hillary) but Hillary will know his achilles heel. His religion. Though Romney has delivered a speech dealing with his faith, and it shouldn't be an issue. (It wasn't when his father ran for President in 1968.) Hillary won't be able to resist using it exactly as Ted Kennedy did in 1994. Every word ever uttered by a Mormon leader will be connected to Romney, everthing a group of Mormons ever did will somehow be his fault.

Given that a large segment of Americans won't vote for a Mormon, there negatives are almost as high as Hillary's, he has a lot of work in front of him. Even within his own party their is a large group viscerally against him being President. Currently they back Mike Huckabee, and while they can't deny him the nomination they can deny him the election. Huckabee's evangelicals, who are either confused or angry over Romney's religion, could stay home in sufficient numbers to deny him key southern states. Given that a GOP nominee needs to sweep the south to win this would certainly give the presidency to Hillary. Not that Hillary is Ms. popularity, but with the Democrats solidly behind her, and women voting for her in droves, a split in the GOP ranks would be fatal to Romney.

Romney could win, but I don't like his odds.