I think I must be crazy or something

As most of you know, I have an enormous amount of respect for Mr. Auster and the way he defends Traditionalist Conservatism on a daily basis over at VFR. But look at the terms in which he speaks of Mitt Romney in response to a Romney opponent, presumably from the state of Massachusetts where Romney served as Governor:

LA writes:

On other issues, Romney is the only representative of something reasonably like conservatism in the race who has a chance to win the nomination. (emphasis mine)

I'm not sure what "other issues" LA is referring to here, but it is irrelevant to my point. Are these the kinds of terms we're confined to using when discussing the "relative" conservatism of the GOP's new favorite son, Mitt Romney? In order to identify anything resembling conservatism in the man we have to match him up against the other viable GOP candidates, Rudy Guiliani and John McCain, two individuals who would easily pass as liberals were they in the party that they belong in. Doesn't this speak to Romney's non-conservatism more than it does to his conservatism? Doesn't this speak to yet more concessions on the part of true conservatives to those in the Republican party who are not?

Am I just crazy or what? It seems to me that the marriage between conservatism and the GOP is on really shaky ground at this point. I wonder how much longer it can survive?

By the way, my intent here is not to attack Mr. Auster, so please don't go there, I will not join in. All I'm saying is that I find it to be a very sad state of affairs when one of the leading proponents of traditionalist conservatism is relegated to defending a GOP candidate's conservatism in terms like Mr. Auster uses above. What say you?