Yeah, I know. That's why I slipped in the word "claimed".
Voters believed he was, and that's why he won.
When candidates run as serious conservatives, they win. The tax slaves actually have someone they can vote FOR.
” serious conservatives”
I think the problem is that the term you used means alot to many people. If a candidate doesn’t meet ALL of the criteria he or she won’t get elected.
The GOP used to be a big tent and we were a tolerant lot - there social conservatives and some not so social conservatives, there environmentalists, etc. The media successfully spun up hatred of Bush and then reflected that to the GOP. The GOP became the party of anti-entitlements when people were needing handouts - Obama has successfully sustained the recession and is the caring overlord. Republicans playing an old school game of politics got creamed by Obama’s marketing team.
I think your assumption about conservative voters will be tested in 2014 - Obama will roll out his target marketing election system to more democrats by then.