West is as conservative as they get. Romney is a RINO but ran as a conservative. Idealogy alone doesn't win or lose elections. It is important but just one dimension.
Image and persuasiveness win elections. Romney's image lost the election. He could have run as whatever and it simply would not have mattered. We need a conservative that can effectively persuade the masses like Reagan could AND is young and hip and doesn't look like a fuddy-duddy with a cadillac in the garage.
It’s not about image. The Obama ground game would have killed anyone on Tuesday. They knew exactly what buttons to push to get white women, single women, minorities, etc. to vote againg the GOP. The Obama campaign was able to paint the GOP as a monolith— everyone was a homophobic, sexist, racist Mourdock-Akinite in favor of rape and making women have babies from rapists. The demographics won’t get better and the Democrats know how to keep those demographics on the plantation in large enough numbers.