On your last point, I BEG you to drop it. I had this conversation with the republican "leaders" in my town several years ago. They said after a few years of the dems everyone will be so eager for republicans. Today we have NO republicans in office and the party is practically defunct. Republicans cannot win by losing.
I wish I knew enough about political science to make a good enough argument against that. Loosing control completely is a definite risk we take when we decide not to vote for the Republican primary candidate. It's something that I consider very carefully when trying to decide whether I'll vote Republican or third party if Rudy is nominated.
I would like to point out that a complete loss of control is not always the outcome though. I truly believe that a major contributing factor to Reagan's victory was opposition to 4 more years of Jimmy Carter. Do we know for sure Reagan would have been elected if Ford had won two terms?