The current crop of RINO elitists would reject Ronald Reagan himself for Romney or Mitch Daniels. They SO need to be shown the door.
Pointless comparison.
If there were a Reagan -- a California governor who was unquestioned leader of a confident conservative movement -- it's hard to imagine people in such a movement not supporting such a governor, pretty much by definition.
But there isn't such a candidate (or such a conservative movement) this year. Times change and the older options aren't available, so people make do with what's available.
Might as well say that you guys would pass up Reagan -- a popular big-state governor who managed to work with a Democrat-controlled legislature -- for someone like Gingrich or whoever provided, he irritated the right people.