The party is toast. It died when Reagan finished his second term. Anthony Wiener could beat whoever the RNC Elite put up in 2016.
I think the real last gasp of conservatives in the GOP was the 1994 elections. We even had Clinton running scared back then declaring the “era of big government was over.”
I think the conservative chemotherapy only put the cancer of liberalism into temporary remission. It came back with a vengeance.
Reagan’s biggest mistake was the first decision he made. He choose George H W Bush as his VP. Then he kept him. Bush One is proof that the RINOs never, ever learn a d*mn thing.