It would be nice, Republican voters think, if they could just combine the rhetorical skills and emotional intensity of Newt Gingrich with the personal discipline and organizational skills of Mitt Romney plus the moral and political consistency of Rick Santorum. Alas, this ain't Build-a-Bear. You don't get to assemble your own candidate, you gotta pick one of these guys. And then that guy, including all the parts of him you don't like, gets to run against Obama.
Elections are less about voting for somebody any more than they are about voting against somebody. For some people, that's easy: anybody but that guy. For others, it's a little different: we rank them according to their defects and vote for the least unacceptable choice. It's a heckuva way to run a country.