Nope. Sorry. That ain't it.
The reason the best conservative candidate is failing to resonate with the voters is he doesn't have the skills to manage the adversarial media.
The media couldn't give a fig about "informing" the American people. Trump knows that, so he doesn't even try. He turns the interview into a WWE match between himself and the "journalist," such that he gets his sound-byte while bitch slapping the "heel" (term for the bad guy in pro wrestling).
People love that.
The sad truth is a non-leftist candidate's media presence, and policies are two very different disciplines in today's environment, and a successful candidate has to be able to manage them both separately.
Very true. There are two aspects of American public life; politics and policy. Politics is how you get there, and policy is what you do when you are there. We have a system designed to elect people who are really good at politics, but don't know anything about policy except as an extension of politics. Because of the inherent media advocacy against candidates that would carry out conservative policies, it's an uphill struggle to get those candidates elected. If the media reported objectively to the electorate, we would have elected officials adept at both.