Reagan wouldn't stand a primary chance in Hell.
You forget that many of the “principled conservatives” here that you mock and claim would not vote for Reagan have already done just that, they prove you ridiculously wrong by having already enthusiastically voting for him twice.
Some of us loved him so much that we went back into the military because of him, or enlisted for the first time.
Romney did not vote for him, he changed his party registration, and did not support Reagan, “principled conservative freepers” did support Reagan, and still do as Romney attacks him and his legacy.
You and I must not have known the same Ronald Reagan.
As to Reagan signing a permissive abortion bill, that is not analogous to Romney. Reagan sincerely repented and personally circulated petitions for an ill-fated initiative to repeal said law as soon as, within a year, he was shocked at the staggering number of California's "legal" baby murders under that law. He also addressed the March for Life every year as POTUS, wrote an entire book arguing persuasively for ending abortion and, once he changed back to civilization's view, he never wavered for a second for the rest of his life. Romney, in 2006, AFTER he claims falsely to have become pro-life in 2005, made subsidy of $50 abortions MANDATORY for religious employers, put Planned Barrenhood on the Board of Romneycare to protect its interests, and then stuck his finger in the National Republican wind and continued lying in his claim to be pro-life.
As a lawyer, I represented more than a thousand arrested pro-lifers. Neither I nor they had any problem with Ronaldus Maximus and every one of them aware of Romney despised Romney. I must say that I am amazed at those who schlep for Romney telling us who know better what Reagan would think or do. You can bet it would not be what spineless Chuckie Hagel or MSNBC imagine.
If the GOP wants our votes, it da*n well better EARN them the old-fashioned way by nominating acceptable candidates and NOT by allowing anonymous shadowy corruptocrats of Wall Street to buy the POTUS nomination for leftist trash like Romney. No exceptions.