WASHINGTON — Conservatives, at least those with access to radio microphones, are madder than heck. Their party is going to the dogs and they’d rather sit it out and see a president Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama than vote for a liberal like John McCain.Who’s to blame for their plight? It’s the liberal media, who just loves McCain, they say. Or it’s independents who voted in party primaries and went for McCain.Well, that same “liberal” media that allegedly loves McCain was pretty quick to write him off as his campaign sank in the polls and ran out of money a few months ago. And those same independents are the ones who’ll swing the general election.

Here’s another explanation for their plight. The conservatives did not coalesce behind any conservative alternative. They split their support, or just bided their time, waiting for a perfect candidate. Some put their stock in Fred Thompson, who proved to be a dud as a campaigner. Others backed Rudy Giuliani, who had the strange campaign strategy of ignoring the initial states and believing, for some reason, that this wouldn’t hurt him. By the time they belatedly rallied to Mitt Romney, it was too little too late.