Right-wing radio: Romney loses, GOP dies!

Right-wing radio: Romney loses, GOP dies!

By DYLAN BYERS | 9/11/12 4:19 PM EDT
Leading conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham are both arguing that the Republican party will or should be shut down if Mitt Romney loses in November -- an idea that, however hard to believe, gives you an indication of the right wing's dissatisfaction with the Republican party.

"If you can't beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down, start new, with new people. Because this is a gimme election, or at least it should be," Ingraham said on her radio program yesterday. "Election after election, we hire people who have lost previous campaigns, who have run campaigns that have failed, who have messaged campaigns where the message fell flat, and they keep getting re-hired."

Where Ingraham made an argument, Limbaugh made a prediction: The Republicans would fall, but not before blaming the conservative base for their woes and opening a window for a third, more conservative party to take their place.

"If Obama wins, let me tell you what it's the end of: The Republican Party. There's gonna be a third party that's gonna be oriented toward conservatism. I know Rand Paul thinks libertarianism. And I know if Obama wins, the Republican Party is gonna try to maneuver things so conservatives get blamed," he said.

"The only problem is, right now Romney's not running a conservative campaign. But they're gonna set it up to say, 'Well, the right sat home,' or, 'The right made Romney be other than who he is.' They'll try to deflect the blame, but they got who they want."