^^ That right there is the winner. There has been all of this talk that Romney didn't win because he didn't pander to brown people, people with vaginas and so on, and IMO that is pure crap.
The numbers say both candidates sucked. The votes McLame got in '08 would have trounced the marxist this year, he won only because his machine failed a bit less miserably at its GOTV effort.
Reagan would have energized his voters and he would have won, even against Santa Claus.
Question will remain forever unanswered, was Reagan running in our primaries? I have to say if he was, it would have been Gingrich. He had a load of baggage and most of it twisted and undeserved, but we are now in the realm of coulda shoulda wouldas and we shoulda.
I think Reagan understood that conservative principles are a foundation to stand and build on not a club to beat up your opponents with. His belief in and commitment to those principles made it easy for him to promote them. He didn’t have to convince the right that he was genuinely conservative and he was able to elucidate conservatism and make it attractive to moderates and leftists without first apologizing and sounding defensive about it.