Are the Republicans being ripped apart?

Why is there no clear front-runner in the Republican race for president? The Washington Post analyzes the situation and does a good job summing it all up.

Is the GOP grounded in the social issues embodied by Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee or the foreign policy experience of former POW John McCain? Do Republicans see their futures in a former CEO such as Mitt Romney, who promises to tackle Washington incompetence, or in a leader such as Rudolph W. Giuliani, who talks tough on terrorism and crime? Should the party embrace anger about immigration or optimism about America's potential?

Giuliani tends to win them on economic issues, but they cannot get by his stand on social issues. They like Huckabee on the social agenda, but do not trust his economic stands. They like the Romney they see now, but they cannot forget the positions he once embraced in Massachusetts. And they dislike McCain's opposition to Bush's first-term tax cuts and his crusade to overhaul campaign finance laws.

Read the whole article. I'm not one who necessarily believes all the back-and-forth is a bad thing, though, and certainly don't believe it will "rip apart" the coalition as the Post suggests. The more options we have, the more discussion we can (hopefully) have about where we want to go as a party and as a country. The questions is will the best of all candidates rise into the eventual nominee?