Scarborough: Conservative Leaders Telling Me They'd 'Rather Lose' Than Elect Romney

Could this be a watershed week in the Republican presidential primary?  Joe Scarborough seems to think so.  

On today's Morning Joe, he said something remarkable: that in the last week, stalwart conservatives and "conservative leaders" have begun telling him that they would "rather lose" than elect Mitt Romney. Video after the jump.

Scarborough suggested that it was Romney's change of positions on supporting Gov. John Kasich's attempt in Ohio to reform unions that was the straw that broke conservatives' backs.  Watch Scarborough's stunning statement.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Willie Geist, I've got to say, seriously: day in and day out, the longer Herman Cain's in first place, the subtext of this story is Mitt Romney. Is the fact that the conservative base does not trust Mitt Romney.  I think what he did last week in Ohio--I will say it again and I will say it again--because it resonated with the conservative base, his flip-flop on whether he was going to support John Kasich or not and Kasich's union reforms, or, quote, anti-union legislation, is devastating for Mitt Romney . . . The party's in search of itself. It does not have a conservative stalwart to get behind that can win the general election. Isn't that what these rises and falls and fluctuations of all these conservative candidates, Willie, means?

You know, Andrea, I'm hearing something remarkable over the past week. I'm hearing conservatives, stalwart conservatives, starting to say: you know what?  I would rather lose to Barack Obama. I would rather give him four more years than elect Mitt Romney and have him spend money like George Bush and have another Republican who promises to be conservative go liberal.  Conservative leaders, this week: it's like a light switch has come on.  And they say: you know what?  We would rather lose.