Well, I hate to break it to you, but that is going to be the choice and it will always be the choice. After the primary the choice will be one or the other, and nomatter who it is I’m sure our guy will be somebody that part of the conservative movement finds “unacceptable”. —Nomatter who it is. Ronald Reagan would be pilloried by most of FR if he were running today.
The left wins in this country because they’ve learned to be happy with imperfectly socialist candidates and incremental changes pushing the country leftward. The right loses because we want it all or nothing, all at once. In our woefully imperfect republic, that’s just never going to happen.
And you’ve just detailed the GOP/RNC strategy for the past 12 years: let’s push someone who is a moderate that will appeal to independents and conservative democrats: screw the base! They’ve vote for the R label anyway!