Mainstream conservative wins. Flakey-fringy-fruity conservative doesn't. Just the truth.
I remember reading that the entertainer Connie Stevens, a close friend of McCain's, once said that she was pro-McCain because he made her "feel safe." Even if McCain seems rather nutty to us, he does make many Republicans and even independents "feel safe."
True, but one can be staunchly conservative and still appeal to the mainstream.
Does the name Ronald Reagan ring a bell? At the time, he wasn't a "mainstream" conservative by the traditional Republican definition at the time.