“Look at the culture. Regan would not be electable today”.
Wrong. Obama got no where close to the votes he got in 2008 and Romney got no where close to the conservative votes that McCain managed to get in 2008. If Romney had gotten the same number of white conservatives as McCain got in 2008 Romney would be president. Numbers were down for both candidates in 2012. The GOP needs to concentrate on those conservatives that have stayed away in 2012 and 2008. Run Cruz and see how many Christian conservatives stay home. He would win in a landslide. And by the way McCain getting more conservatives than Romney was because of Palin. If she hadn’t been on the ticket Obama would have beaten him by double digits.
I don't know where this myth got started, but Obama did have 3.5 million fewer votes in 2012 than he had in 2008, but Romney had one million more votes than McCain had in 2008. It is just a matter of verifiable fact. PS: Obama still won by 5 million votes.