Are you serious? President Reagan was in the movies, was two term Governor of California, and ran for President in 1976. He was not someone that was not well known. In fact, he was one of our better known candidates to run for office of President.
Speaking of endorsements........ Didn't Pat Robertson give his endorsement to Giuliani sometime back on ABC's This Week?..... do you remember that or not?
I'm very serious. At this point in the election cycle, no one thought Reagan had a chance in hades of being elected President. And yet he was.
By the way, that's just one example of when that kind of thing occurred. Lincoln is another instance. It happens. Conservatives shouldn't just throw up their hands at this stage of the game and say, "Oh, well, this guy is ahead now, so we might as well abandon our principles and support him in the primary."
In the general election, that is a different story. But not in a primary.