Because no conservative really wanted it.
Let's face it. Fred wanted it handed to him. Mitt thought he was owed. The rest were pretenders.
Exactly wrong. Fred is just another Bakerite. Don't expect anything different out of him than we have already had out of the rest of the Pubbie presidents after Reagan, all of which have been Baker 'big-tenters'.
Romney is as far left as any, including Giuliani. If one thinks he could win w/o the socons, which he would NEVER get, primarily due to his lifetime stance regarding abortion and homos, one has another think coming.
The only three candidates who stood a chance of winning were Hunter, Tancredo, and Keyes. They were the only three Reagan "big C" Conservatives, and therefore, the only ones capable of pulling all three pillars of conservatism to the cause. Without the Conservatives turning out in huge numbers, THERE IS NO WIN.
The rest, other than those three, were as you said, "pretenders". The lesson is in the sacrifice of principle, and therefore unity, for the sake of supposed "electability". In any other scenario, one of the three pillars are being left behind.