I believe you have it backwards. We need to find a candidate that is a real conservative and will actually advance a real conservative agenda (like maybe vetoing some spending bills). Like my man Ron Paul. And then we need to try and persuade the voters that they should vote for a conservative. You will never make progress toward the conservative goals, which are to the right of the average voter, if you just count heads first.
I don't know how 2008 is going to shake out, but, as much as I admire Rudy, he's too liberal to have much appeal in the South.