The leading voice of the conservative movement for the last half-century says it loud and clear -- Mitt Romney is the bet standard-bearer for the GOP in 2008.

Many conservatives are finding it difficult to pick a presidential candidate. Each of the men running for the Republican nomination has strengths, and none has everything — all the traits, all the positions — we are looking for. Equally conservative analysts can reach, and have reached, different judgments in this matter. There are fine conservatives supporting each of these Republicans.

Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest. While he has not talked much about the importance of resisting ethnic balkanization — none of the major candidates has — he supports enforcing the immigration laws and opposes amnesty. Those are important steps in the right direction.

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More than the other primary candidates, Romney has President Bush’s virtues and avoids his flaws. His moral positions, and his instincts on taxes and foreign policy, are the same. But he is less inclined to federal activism, less tolerant of overspending, better able to defend conservative positions in debate, and more likely to demand performance from his subordinates. A winning combination, by our lights. In this most fluid and unpredictable Republican field, we vote for Mitt Romney.

Indeed, this is why I have supported Romney for months -- he is a real conservative who will pull us back to the right direction politically. And as a businessman, he also is keenly aware of the negative impact of government upon the economy. And most importantly, he avoids the drawbacks of each of the other four major candidates in terms of dividing the base or having too much personal baggage to be a effective candidate for our nation's chief executive. Three of those four are men I deeply admire and believe ought to have a place in a Romney Administration. Indeed, two of those three (McCain and Thompson) would make excellent picks for Vice President, while the third is the obvious choice for either Attorney General or Homeland Security secretary.