Um, I don’t believe it happened that way.
Mitt Romney bought the GOPe. I suspect with careful scrutiny we’ll find he financially supported a great many RINOS through money given to the GOPe. And I believe if you look very closely, we will see the Bush family’s finger prints all over the transactions as well.
With some help from BHO and complicity from Romney and the RINO establishment, via indirect channels. BHO identified GOP candidates, running in the primary, who would be a threat to one of his voting blocks/bases if they won the nomination,i.e. Cain, Bachman. Then implemented a plan to have them lose the primary because, as shown by his razor thin “win” even a few percentages of a lost voting block would have cost him the election.
Cain- threat to BHO’s black voting base
Bachman- threat to his white female voting base
Gingrich- not necessarily a threat to his base but a threat to his entire campaign strategy. Gingrich, despite his flaws, would attack BHO on the real issues and make BHO have to provide answers to the issues instead of using carnival acts and sideshows to dodge them,like BHO did.