Too bad that if you are the nominee JEB! there really won’t be much left of the party. The only way for someone as universally despised by 80% of the party to obtain the nomination is by gaming the primaries. You actually think the voters will tolerate that? That truly will be where the GOP completes its (already well underway) transformation to the modern day Whig party.
It is my opinion that the GOPe of Virginia deliberately gamed their primary for Romney to win. They kicked a bunch of better candidates off their ballot because of a stupid rule change they made in the last year before the primary.
That is the only thing that gave Romney "momentum."